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Friday, April 28, 2006

Skype in China

Interesting post about skype in China:

Comments about Skype chat text filtering in
China

By Jaanus

Today’s Financial Times posted a
story
about how Skype’s partner TOM Online is filtering
text messages in China.

Skype has a joint venture with TOM Online. As part of that
venture, we provide a co-branded version of Skype called TOM-Skype, which is the
version of Skype that is available in mainland China.

As part of the joint venture, TOM provides guidance to Skype
about how to co-operate with local laws and regulations in China. In every
country we operate in, we always work with local authorities to follow local
laws and best practice.

TOM operates a text filter in TOM-Skype. The filter operates
solely on text chats. The filter has a list of words which will not be displayed
in Skype chats.

The text filter operates on the chat message content before it
is encrypted for transmission, or after it has been decrypted on the receiver
side. If the message is found unsuitable for displaying, it is simply discarded
and not displayed or transmitted anywhere.

It is important to underline:

  • The text filter does not affect in any way the security and
    encryption mechanisms of Skype.
  • Full end-to-end security is preserved and there is no
    compromise of people’s privacy.
  • Calls, chats and all other forms of communication on Skype
    continue to be encrypted and secure.
  • There is absolutely no filtering on voice communications.

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