Skype’s sneaky contact harvest

A feature in Skype is encouraging users to access the private contacts of other Skype users.

US-based podcaster and ­entrepreneur Stever Robbins said the feature linked anyone you’ve ever had a Skype chat with.

A feature in Skype is encouraging users to access the private contacts of other Skype users and is still operating despite online complaints.

Many Skype users may be unaware that when Skype “syncs” their contacts, and enables by default a feature called “People You May Know”, the Skype addresses of your children, grandparents, partners, ex-partners, clients, business contacts and competitors could be given to someone you had limited contact with on the platform.

Microsoft in its documentation says users must have taken action to be visible to each other. This could be adding each other to their address books or initiating and accepting invitations to connect. Each user must give permission for their contact data to be used for People You May Know.

“We use contact data for People You May Know suggestions where a user has provided permissions to do so. A user can change her or his permissions at any time,” Microsoft says.

However tests conducted by The Australian with iTunes US podcaster Stever Robbins offer a different picture. We had no previous contact - he lives in Boston, but after one Skype discussion, we were offered sensitive, personal contacts.

After the conversation, Mr Robbins’ People You May Know list suggested as contacts my stepdaughter, an ex-partner, two cousins, along with the Skype details of several of my journalism colleagues, all garnered from my own contacts. Mr Robbins had no knowledge of these people.

Microsoft says you can stop appearing as a suggested contact in Skype if you untick this box.

My People You May Know list included the Skype contact details of four children: three from one family and one from another, where I am friends on Skype with their parents. I had never contacted these children on Skype and their parents would be unaware of these referrals.

Needless to say, I am turning this feature off as quickly as I initiated it for these tests.

When you add a Skype account, it tells you it periodically syncs your contacts. Many might see it as a convenient way of augmenting their Skype contact list, but it’s more than that.

Mr Robbins, an entrepreneur and business adviser, said the measure posed a particular problem for journalists, lawyers and consultants.

He said that if a journalist chatted to two separate confidential sources on Skype with the feature enabled, each could be sent the Skype contact details of the other. They might work out that the recommended name was one of your contacts.

“If Sam is connected to Ash, and Ash is connected to Stacy, then Sam and Stacy will show up in each others’ People You May Know list even though they’ve never taken any action with respect to each other,” Mr Robbins said.

Users online have described the feature as “a ridiculous violation of privacy”. A post in the Microsoft Community on February 3 warned of other scenarios.

“Competing business contacts could see you're working with both of them,” one user said.

“Clients could see they're all clients of you. Family members could see the friends, lovers, types of people you've been talking to.

“This is like your phone broadcasting all the people that you text or call to all of the members of your address book.”

Stever Robbins

A politician’s deep contacts on Skype could end up as recommended contacts for opposing parties if they use Skype a lot with the feature still enabled.

People You May Know gives Skype the feel of a social network. Facebook and LinkedIn have a similar feature. But Skype users may never have regarded Skype as a social network.

Contacts from other Microsoft services such as outlook.com could be added to Skype.

“With your permission, Skype will also check your device or other address books from time to time to automatically add your friends as Skype contacts,” Microsoft says.

Microsoft said users could choose not to receive or appear in People You May Know suggestions by disabling ‘Appear in Suggestions’ in their privacy settings. This would stop the user and their contacts being suggested to other people, a company spokesman said.

The feature is on by default when you create a new Skype account.

Mr Robbins said the feature linked anyone in your contact book or anyone you’ve ever had a Skype chat with. “Even a one-time prospect call would end up being considered a connection.”

He disputed Microsoft’s claim that disabling the feature would stop your contacts from being revealed to someone. “Once Skype has had them, it will continue to use them for suggesting connections. It’s a terrifying example of overreach by Microsoft.”

Microsoft said it also used synced contact data for ranking search results higher if a mutual contact was linked to a site.