Yesterday it was reported that Skype, owned by Microsoft these days, seems to automatically follow each exchanged https link. Besides the fact that this is a huge security and personal rights problem in its own it again shows how important it is to not trust a proprietary system.
The problem, skin deep
Heise reported yesterday that Skype follows https links which have been exchanged in chats on a regular basis. First and foremost, this is a privacy issue: it looks like Skype, and thus Microsoft, scans your chat history and acts based on these findings on a regular base. That cannot be explained by “security measures” or anything like it and is not acceptable. My personal data are mine, and Microsoft should not have anything to do with as long as there is no need!
Second, there is the security problem: imagine you are exchanging private links, or even links containing passwords and usernames for direct access (you shouldn’t, but sometimes you have to). Microsoft does follows these links -and therefore gains full access to all data hidden there. Imagine these are sensitive data (private or business), you have no idea what Microsoft is going to do with them.
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Keith Curtis
