It was recently uncovered that Skype's partner in China, TOM-Skype, is monitoring and logging the instant messages of its users, if they are deemed as offensive. When saved, the instant messages are directly connected to the user's personal and contact information.

John Silverman, Skype's president, said the company was unaware of its partner's monitoring actions in China. He did confirm that messages in China are being censored by TOM, just like any other ISP in China has to do, however it was not Skype's protocol to store these messages and link them to the author. "It was our understanding that it was not TOM's protocol to upload and store chat messages with certain keywords," Silverman writes. "And we are now inquiring with TOM to find out why the protocol changed."

Because of the poor security policy in storing these messages, researchers were able to uncover the text and voice messages being logged. "We were very concerned to learn about both issues and after we urgently addressed this situation with TOM, they fixed the security breach," Silverman said. "In addition, we are currently addressing the wider issue of the uploading and storage of certain messages with TOM."

Messages logged include the ones that oppose the Chinese Communist Party or that relate to Taiwan's independence.

Silverman reassured their customers that the security breach "does not affect communications where all parties are using standard Skype software" and that "Skype-to-Skype communications are, and always have been, completely secure and private."