Skype security and privacy

The security of your information is of the utmost concern to us here at Skype and something we take very seriously. We are committed to ensuring your exprience with Skype is as safe and secure as possible.

Protecting your information, be it your personal or financial details or even the conversations themselves, is one of our top priorities. We have invested heavily in developing controls to protect against current and future security threats in these areas.

Skype Limited, 2009, Security, Viewed on 18 January 2009. <http://www.skype.com/security/>

Skype

Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Everyday, people also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. Skype was founded in 2003. It’s based in Luxembourg, with offices in Europe, the US and Asia. It’s owned by an investor group led by Silver Lake and which includes eBay Inc, Joltid Limited and Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz. (Hill, 2009)

Responsible for 8% of global international calling minutes, and with its users making 3.1 billion minutes of calls to landlines and mobiles in the third quarter of 2009, Skype is a leading global internet communications company. And of course, Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls are completely free. In the third quarter of 2009, Skype users made 27.7 billion minutes of Skype-to-Skype calls, and over a third of these were video calls.

Skype can be used as an Instant messaging service, or as a telephone… with a special Skype phone, or traditional headseat. It even works for video calls, too. Calls to and from other Skype members are free. Calls made to and from cell phones, or land line phones are charged at a per minute rate, unless you are paying a monthly fee ($2.95/month gets you unlimited calls in the USA) that will get you unlimited calls (within the fair use policy.) There are also plans for unlimited international use.

Since the dawn of the first version of the program, the Skype community continues to grow, offering a wide variety of features and services used in conjunction with the program. These are:

• Skype-In: This program allows people using landline phones to reach a Skype user on his or her computer via a regular telephone number. The telephone number can be assigned for 3 months at a time for $12, or $24 for an entire year. Numbers are available all over the United States, and in several countries worldwide. (Watrous, 2009).
• Voice Conferencing: This feature was introduced in 2006 and allows customers to hold video conference calls with other Skype users. This feature became available for the Linux OX. (Watrous, 2009).

Skype To Go: The newest feature available to Skype Pro users, allows people to make international calls from their mobile phones, at the Skype-Out rate they use for all calls from their computer. (Watrous, 2009).

• Skype Mobile: In April 2008, Skype released Mobile Skype, compatible with around 50 different phones. The list of compatible phones continues to grow as programming and technology continue to sync. (Watrous, 2009).

 Reference

Watrous L, 2009, A Brief History of Skype, Mojave Media Group, Viewed 25 Jan 2010

http://www.brighthub.com/office/collaboration/articles/6109.aspx

 Hill M, 2009, Evaluation online communication tools, Viewed 25 Jan 2010

http://intelligentmeasurement.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/evaluating-online-communication-tools