A Canadian researcher has discovered that a Chinese version of eBay's Skype software snoops on text chats that contain certain keywords, including "democracy."
By its very nature, Skype is difficult to wiretap. Skype is supposedly encrypted and routes calls and chats between computers over the Internet, avoiding traditional phone networks.
That raises concerns in law enforcement that Skype could let criminals communicate without fear of eavesdropping.
In the other camp, privacy advocates and security experts are concerned that Skype, while presented by the company as secure, may be vulnerable to eavesdropping. The issue appears only to affect people using the Chinese software.
Skype use has been growing and now claims 338 million users across the world.
