Skype Blog

A perfect lesson on how to write "denials" that are accurate but aren't what most of the public can understand:

http://blogs.skype.com/2012/07/26/what-does-skypes-architecture-do/

"It has been suggested that as a result of recent architecture changes Skype now monitors and records audio and video calls of our users.

False.

The move to in-house hosting of “supernodes” does not provide for monitoring or recording of calls. .."

There are more paragraphs that follow, but they can honestly say they didn't lie, since obviously they had the functionality to monitor and record the calls even before they introduced the supernodes so it is false that they introduced the supernodes for that, but it is not false that the Skype conversations can and are monitored by authorities.

Note that it's by law the job of FBI to do such monitoring, when it's about US citizens, and it's NSA's job for non-US citizens. Microsoft is definitely not breaking any laws. So when they say that it's all lawful what they do it's also true.

If you want to get a sense of how bad thing at Skype have gotten, check out this thread on their site.

http://blogs.skype.com/en/2011/01/mac.html

It's their "big announcement", and it's followed by the longest, and most vitriolic stream of comments from people who are appalled by the terrible design. It's the only thing 9/10 comments even mention.

The amazing thing is that near the bottom, their "Blogger in Chief" Peter Parks provides a point-by-point reply to each of the comments that didn't mention the UI (there are a handful), while completely ignoring the issue receiving all the attention. He actually gets called out on this, only to come back with half-baked line about "your thoughts about the new UI are very valuable to the Mac team here."

Which, of course, is total bullshit. They're the exact same comments the Mac team received by the boatload and promptly ignored during the beta.

So, I'd love to help but... there's nothing to show after initial work in 2011. And I found no plans to provide any updates.

Besides, this reverse engineering work should be simpler now that Skype was bought by Microsoft. For example, Microsoft no longer encrypts/destroys the executable's import table. And it seems they dumped the anti-debugger code too.

Let's also not forget Microsoft is pushing out new variants that should lend themselves to reverse engineering (e.g. web/plugin-free [0] and Universal Windows Platform [1] apps).

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[0] https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA12316/what-is-the-skype-web-plugin-and-how-do-i-install-it#PluginFree

[1] http://blogs.skype.com/2016/03/24/skype-universal-windows-platform-app-preview-for-windows-10-is-coming-to-windows-insiders/

Here is a blog entry from Skype:
http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/10/android.html

On the bottom you can find the following disclaimers:

* Skype is not available in the Android Market in China or Japan.

* Skype has been tested on HTC and Motorola devices with Android OS 2.1 and above. It may work on other Android phones, but we can’t guarantee full functionality or compatibility.

* We’re aware of some problems with the Samsung Galaxy S, and we’re looking to address these in the future.

* It’s free to use Skype in a WiFi zone. If you use Skype with a mobile data connection, operator charges may apply, so we recommend an unlimited data plan.

* In the US, you can make calls only over WiFi.

* A fair use policy applies to unlimited subscriptions.

I'm pretty certain that Microsoft already (mostly) made this backward-incompatible move several years ago, when they shut down the last of their (old Skype protocol)<->(MSNP24) gateways in 2014, so any Skype clients that predate the MSNP24 support being added to Skype no longer work.

The thing they're doing now is probably either breaking Skypeweb backward compat or a rev on MSNP, depending on which mechanism the embedded clients use. Quickly reading the actual blog post that the Ars article is about [1] (which I couldn't find an obvious link to in the article) makes me think it's probably Skypeweb they're breaking.

[1] - http://blogs.skype.com/2016/07/20/skype-the-journey-weve-been-on/

Ooh! Ooh! Does it have the new Conversation Ads feature?

http://blogs.skype.com/en/2012/06/skype_advertising_update.html

I, for one, cannot WAIT to see these new ads, which Microsoft describes as "content that could spark additional topics of conversation that are relevant to Skype users."

Isn't that great? Ads are now "content." And the motivation isn't to make a bundle of money on ads, it's to "spark conversations."

Add this to the craptastical user interface and built-in backdoor eavesdropping, and it's plain to see that Skype has a bright future ahead!

http://memeburn.com/2011/07/microsoft-and-skype-set-to-allow-backdoor-eavesdropping/