 |
| After the scandal ... Microsoft confirms checking Skype calls in the Safety Center |
After the British Guardian newspaper released a new report on Friday, Microsoft said the company used Chinese contractors to take advantage of certain calls and ensure that the software was copied to the National Security Agency. "It works well.
The U.S. software giant confirmed on the tech website The Verge that China is not currently one of the countries that copies Skype calls.
A former businessman living in Beijing told the Guardian that he could barely copy Skype calls due to possible government interference. A former anonymous businessman told the newspaper that he had searched thousands of Skype and Digital Assistant Cortana records on his laptop at home for two years.
According to the Guardian, entrepreneurs involved in the review process were able to access registrations through a web app in Chinese Chrome's online browser. Only a small number of employees were examined and no security measures were taken to protect the tapes from government interference or criminal offenses.
The businessman informed the Guardian that he heard "all kinds of unusual conversations" during the copy. He added: "After automatic cyber security speculations, I found him a little crazy and sent me an email, a username, and a password."
After distributing the Guardian’s report, a spokesperson for The Virg company said in an email: “If one of our suppliers shows suspicious behavior or possible violations, we will investigate and take action.” He added that the businessman's voice "quote" is a comment of 10 seconds or less and that no one who comments on these excerpts can access a long conversation.
The spokesman added: "We always share this information with our customers and act according to the highest legal data protection standards (such as the European General Data Protection Regulations).
It is worth noting that discussions about the frequent presence of Skype chat software were first published in a report published by Motherboard in August. Although the Skype Terms of Service indicate an analysis of voice calls, the report is the first to explain the scope of the analysis conducted by people. Contrary to the competitors ’explicit announcement to end the manual review of Digital Aid, Microsoft continues this practice and appears to be updating its privacy policy to familiarize itself with it.