Nikolay Pryanishnikov, president of “Microsoft-Russia,” said ‘he would be glad’ to provide Federal Security Service (FSB) with the source code of Skype, after the corporation finalizes the deal. Some media outlets first misinterpreted [ru] his statement, but later Microsoft had officially explained [ru]: “Within many years Microsoft had provided FSB with the source code of our software. In perspective, Skype can join the list of such products.” For many digital activists Skype remains one of the secure tools of online communication.
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To put this in perspective: Some governments want access to Windows source code, so they can verify the security claims that Microsoft makes about it. Microsoft also shares Windows source code with a variety of educational institutions. I assume this comment about Skype is implying something similar.
Dear Bruce, thank you very much for the note on this.
There’s no point really. They have already a reverse-engineered specification of the protocol and need only to ask one question: Does communication pass through a server? If so (protip: it probably does) then it is likely that it records conversations or chat logs.
Conclusion: Do not use it for confidential conversations and yadda yadda.
The act of “offering” the source code seems to be merely an attempt to sound as open as actual open-source software, in which Russian has been gaining considerable interest lately. It is not a new thing for Microsoft to do such things.