Microsoft says Skype audio is now reviewed in ‘secure facilities’ after a worrying report – Which highlights again centralised services can be intercepted

Microsoft says Skype calls are now transcribed in “secure facilities in a small number of countries,” following a new report in The Guardian about the company’s use of contractors in China to listen to some calls to make sure the company’s transcription software is working properly. The company confirmed to The Verge that China is not currently one of the countries where transcription takes place.

A former contractor who lived in Beijing told The Guardian that he transcribed Skype calls with little cybersecurity protection from potential state interference. The unidentified former contractor told The Guardian that he reviewed thousands of audio recordings from Skype and Cortana on his personal laptop from his home in Beijing over a two-year period.

Don’t think because you see a green padlock on the browser bar that your communications are secure and private… often that padlock is just the connection to a centralised service (Skype, Whatsapp, Facebook, etc) and is not a direct (peer-to-peer) connect to the end person you are communicating with. Which means the service/organisation in the middle can intercept the communications (for law enforcement, transcription services adverts, spell checking, selling data, or whatever).

You want to look for peer-to-peer services where you are able to provide your own encryption key and use 2nd factor means to verify the end user. There are services like Jami, Jitsi, etc that allow you to do this are free.

See https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/10/21059947/skype-audio-secure-privacy-microsoft-apple-google-amazon-china-contractors

#privacy #technology #communications
#^Microsoft says Skype audio is now reviewed in ‘secure facilities’ after a worrying report

Image/photo

Microsoft says it has moved the location of its audio review programs outside of China