Over the last week or so, there have been reports that suggested Skype had expanded its cooperation with law enforcement agencies that are eager to gain access to conversations over the service. The reports said this resulted from the recent addition of supernodes residing in the data centers of Skype’s new corporate parent, Microsoft, which help with establishing connections between users.
In a blog post Thursday evening, Mark Gillett, chief development and operations officer at Skype, flatly described those claims as “false.”
“The move to supernodes was not intended to facilitate greater law enforcement access to our users’ communications,” Mr. Gillett wrote.
He also said it was not true that Skype has begun to monitor voice and video calls on its network as a result of the changes, or that the company changed its technical architecture to provide greater access to instant messaging communications.
Supernodes, Mr. Gillett said, help with the stability of the Skype network. They act like a phone directory, helping locate Skype users on its network so calls can be established. Skype, though, has cooperated with law enforcement agencies for years when it’s legally required to do so, Mr. Gillett said.
Skype’s response isn’t likely to completely satisfy security experts who would like to know more about Skype’s capacity to snoop on its users. In a blog post on Thursday, Christopher Soghoian, a security and privacy researcher, said that Skype was “not transparent about its surveillance capabilities.”
“It will not tell us how it handles keys, what kind of assistance it provides governments, under what circumstances, or which governments it will and won’t assist,” Mr. Soghoian said. “Until it is more transparent, Skype should be assumed to be insecure, and not safe for those whose physical safety depends upon confidentiality of their calls.”