You are correct. It won't just be U.S. originated or received phone calls, it will be for any Skype mediated calls, including foreign ones, which are routed through U.S. based network infrastructure.

Thankfully this market is opening up and Skype will soon have competition from operators based off-shore, operators who'll offer end-to-end encryption and no logs.

*** What I want to be when I grow up: a tall tree, or the itching powder in Big Brother's jockstrap! ***
*** Freedom's Friends: titter with Tiffany (http://www.nearlyperfectpri...) and weep with Witness (http://www.witness.org) ***

Crap. I was hoping that I would be told that I WAS wrong, that I was indeed missing something, because I like Skype. I even pay for Skype Out and Skype In with voice mail. I may have to rethink that....

Little Acorn: Thanks for introducing me to those blogs! There are so many bloggers out there that I never find all of the ones relevant to my interests. I'll check them out in depth later.

Maybe its not so bad. It doesn't say that Skype will break the law in order to hand over your information (like several US telcos recently did, leading to the EFF lawsuit).

IANAL, and I only read the exceprts of the privacy policy you quote above, but I think the "designated competent authority" could mean that Skype will only hand over the info when it is legally requested by a proper authority. In the USA the NSA would need to obtain a warrant, or else they are not a designated authority.

I don't use Skype, so I don't necessarily care enough to look at the full terms, but I don't think your quoted sections are sufficient to determine Skype's stance.

In other words, I really hope you missed something

Exactly what Brian said, its not what happened with the NSA recently, all telcos and internet providers that I know of provide this disclaimer because if they are served with a warrant they are legally obligated to give the authorities whatever information is requested in the warrant.

So if you plan a crime using Skype, get caught, the police find out, and make a request to Skype for the logs to use in trial, Skype can turn over that information when presented with a warrant without worrying about being sued for it.

Thanks Brianosaurus and Ran. What you say makes me feel better about using Skype. But....

I understand about the warrant issue. I figured that is what "unless it is obliged to do so under applicable laws" meant. It's the "or by order of the competent authorities" bit that still concerns me. To me that *sounds* like something different from "applicable laws" and warrants. Is the NSA a competent authority ONLY if they first get warrants/go to FISA? Or is the NSA a competent authority period, and all they have to do is ask Skype?

Guys, guys... I have COMPLETE confidence in Skype founder Niklas Zennström - after all, he also founded Kazaa, so there's no reason to worry. He has our best interests at heart!

</sarcasm>

LOL @ Burnside. So does the NSA!

the key word is "request", as in, if the NSA "requests". Warrants compel, they do not request.

There is no law that forbids a VOIP company from sharing records or copies of calls with anyone and everyone, so it's not necessarily "illegal wiretapping" from their perspective like it is with Ma Bell.

I don't think he owns skype anymore tho

From Wikipedia:
Zennström’s newest venture, together with partner Janus Friis, Skype, an Internet telephony company based on peer-to-peer principles, has recently been sold to eBay for 2.6 billion euros. The purchase closed on October 14, 2005.
Also, anyone suspicious about the free Skype-Out until the end of the year?

Opps! Skypes forgot to tell you that they are providing the spooks with your data as a public service--i.e. they are not accepting any money from the government, as you would be paying with your tax dollars for the spooks to spy on you. I am sure that this is the case, and that the fact that Skype didn't tell you so is due to an oversight on their part.

Darn SKYPE stole the piddling money I had left in my Skype-OUT account because I never use it. They claim they sent me 2 warnings in the preceeding month, but I have an IMAP folder with EVERYTHING they ever sent, and they LIE.

So I'll use the free SKYPE-OUT just til the end of the year even for local and otherwise totally free calls and screw them let them pay for it - they DO offer it free! And then at the end of the year switch to a good VOIP provider like Broadvoice cuz thieves at SKYPE are not getting more money from me.

Being a supernode and having them suck too much of my CPU made me reboot. My cisco 2621 router showed only 77000bps and 55 pps, but literally hundreds of active discrete flows using port 0x48C0.

I don't think there is anything "evil" behind the temporarily "free" Skype-Out service, but suspect the adoption rate is a lot lower than they want and so hope to suck folks into being accustomed to use it and hope that many will continue after ther free perions - but lets just only play half their game.

"So if you plan a crime using Skype, get caught, the police find out, and make a request to Skype for the logs to use in trial, Skype can turn over that information when presented with a warrant without worrying about being sued for it. "

It is actually worse than that I suspect!

NSA doubtlessly has cracked Skype's encryption if they have not just been GIVEN the way to do it. They are probably already recording as much of it as they want and so they might just go back to their archives and replay what they already recorded.

Realistically, I suspect they monitor in realtime with computers listening for key words or phrases on calls between folks not already getting totally recorded, and will permanently record and even queue for human review calls the computer thinks sound suspicious.

Now with the Homeland Gestapo Directorate consolidating more control into fewer hands, perhaps they can simultaneously check whether you have been checking out the 911 lies websites and how many weapons you have and even can tentatively assign you to the most appropriate FEMA interment camp as long as the 6,000,000 or so slots are not yet filled.

As we get closer to the next presidentail election, watch for even more monitoring and perhaps a 10X 911 or whatever it takes to scare the shitless bleating sheep into begging for (or at least accepting) martial law, and indefinitely suspended elections for "continuity or command".

We are a great and strong country, and could easily weather a 911 every month (as horrible as that would be) but we won't survive if we crumble and don't get some quality government in Washington. Denial mode is folly.

Homeland Gestapo Act needs to be dismantled. Federal agencies need to be decoupled a bit more from each other and from anything short termed like a mere Whitehouse Administration and made VERY accountable for not catching other agencies doing blatantly illegal things.

General Clark, violating Posse Comitatus, should never ever have gotten away with his role at Waco, and suiciding Foster and an NRO analyst should not have stopped whistle blowing.

OKC and 911 should have had senior Washington folks in jail for treason immediately. The system is very badly broken.

Business as usual HAS to stop in Washington. Some quality and ethical patriots have to replace the scum. We are on a scum greased slippery slope and need to repair the government while it is still possible.

Its that we have real reason to fear misuse of details of what should be our protected speech that makes NSA spying even dangerous for patriots.