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Skype contact lists may have been exposed (2017)
- Paraesthetic 8y agoSounds like you're using a consumer version of a product and wondering why it has consumer features. It would however be interesting to see how Skype for Pro's (read: Business) handles this suggestion feature.
- gumby 8y agoI assume most people who still use Skype use the consumer version.
- freeone3000 8y agoSkype for Business does not have a contact suggestion feature. It's also a completely separate product. Skype is to Skype for Business as Visual Studio is to Visual Studio Code.
- cm2187 8y agoI wonder how they thought that it was a good idea to capitalize on a brand that they previously damaged beyond recognition.
- Meph504 8y agoSkype for business is now being folded into Microsoft teams, in fact, by default, Skype for business users, will have teams shadow installed on their machines, unless their admins make and effort to stop it. I'd say they are probably going to draw a hard line between them, perhaps so they can experiment with more public features like this. "LinkedIn integration in the Office web apps will gradually start rolling out in the coming months for Office 365 users and to Outlook on the web users who have opted in to the new Outlook on the web, and world-wide availability will come in 2019."
- rzzzt 8y agoFormerly known as Lync: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_for_Business https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_for_Business
- dijit 8y agoAnd before that: Office Communicator. They really are distinct products, it's "skype" by name only. Office Communicator/Lync/SfB is really designed for companies to run themselves, there's tangential support for federation (as in, it exists, but it's a complete and utter nightmare for administering) there's no support for blocking contacts and by default the entire "local" directory is available. In fact, I'm not even sure if you can configure it not to expose all your users to every other user. It's a /completely/ different product, that fact cannot be understated.
- zuppy 8y agothey're pushing something else now: microsoft teams. looks like a combination of google wave and hipchat.
- throwmeback 8y agoMy company suddenly jumped to Office 365 recently. We now have to use the "Mobile" versions of all Office apps (they don't even appear in the Windows Store search for me). It feels like a preschool version of an actual Office Suite. We've been testing Teams for a week and nobody has used it ever since. It doesn't delivers a message and then it disappear; the calls often work only one-way. To use it on Linux, you have to fake your user-agent. It's laughably bad.
- freeone3000 8y agoYou can use it on linux with Chrome, not Chromium, and Firefox, but only from the website and not from your distribution. This may relieve the hassle of faking your user-agent.
- throwmeback 8y agoI exclusively use Chromium or privacy-oriented forks on my devices, so I'll be sticking to the user-agent faking for now. Thanks for the clarification though!
- Paraesthetic 8y agoto be honest though. I loved google wave
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- _emacsomancer_ 8y agoI never assume a deep level of security for any Microsoft product. Fortunately, who my Skype contacts are isn't particularly sensitive. (I wouldn't choose Skype as a platform for anything sensitive.)
- beezischillin 8y agoI never quite understood why Microsoft is so hell-bent on adding stupid features, removing useful ones and creating unwanted re-designs for Skype instead improving core features. The new design is awful, they removed contact groups, something I used daily. Didn't they also experiment with stupid stories at one point? And now this. I'm surprised people were not mad about it a lot earlier, since it's been a while since they did this. All in all, it seems very tone deaf, at least to me.
- cantrevealname 8y ago> I never quite understood why Microsoft is so hell-bent on adding stupid features, removing useful ones and creating unwanted re-designs for Skype instead improving core features. I'm looking forward to a Microsoft insider's exposé on what really happened inside the Skype team to destroy such a beloved product. It was indeed loved in its pre-Microsoft heyday around 2008-2010: I remember an international student telling me that Skype changed her life because she could stay in audio & video contact with her family overseas. Since the Microsoft acquisition, every single aspect of Skype has gotten worse. It's remarkable that if Microsoft had done nothing with Skype other than simply keeping it up-to-date with new releases of Windows, OS X, Linux, etc., it would be a far superior product. As far as I can tell, only two things keep it alive: the tremendous installed base from when it was a much esteemed program and the fact that it runs on everything -- making it the common denominator when the grumpy Windows desktop guy needs to video chat with the hipster on the newest iPad Pro. :-).
- 8ytecoder 8y agoGot my parents a Skype camera that plugged into the Sony TV. The best way to stay in touch with them. They didn't even need to know to operate a smartphone. A few years later - the TV app was disabled, Skype on the phone doesn't stay logged in, call drops, the interface is confusing and we have moved on to FaceTime and WhatsApp now. They took a great product and decimated it.
- setquk 8y ago
- dwheeler 8y agoThis is pretty egregious. Is this possibly illegal? I certainly did not consent.
- rjmunro 8y agoYou probably did consent, it would be somewhere in the terms and conditions you accepted without reading them. This may be against GDPR in Europe, but may not, because everyone they are suggesting has agreed to Skype's term at some point.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoMy understanding was that you can't sign away your GDPR rights just by accepting a ToS.
- lkurusa 8y agoCorrect - there has to be a clear indication that you are consenting. It can't just be hidden away in a 60 page document in a statement that says "I consent to being tracked, etc".
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoAIUI GDPR requires explicit consent, not just "we tricked you, ha ha" consent.
- diggernet 8y agoJudging by the Microsoft link in TFA, this should be (2017). Also, I can't help wondering what changes they will be making to this "feature" to accommodate California's new CCPA...
- jeromebaek 8y agoNo timestamp, when was this article posted?
- robertwiblin 8y agoDec 2017: https://web.archive.org/web/20171223024842/http://www.steverrobbins.com/articles/skype-serious-privacy-breach/ https://web.archive.org/web/20171223024842/http://www.stever...
- chinathrow 8y agoThis started with the preview version like 1 month ago. I immediately removed the new setting as I noticed the suggestions popping up. These changes should be opt-in.
- zuppy 8y agono, it's much older, the osx skype redesign included this and that was more than a year ago (i don't know about windows). when i installed it, it suggested as a contact the mother of one of my colleagues. there's nothing in common between us, she even lives on a different country.
- mastazi 8y agoI have to agree on this one. I am my mother’s only Skype contact. When she started receiving friend suggestions she quickly worked out that those people were my friends. Luckily it’s my mother we’re talking about and I don’t mind her seeing those contacts, but what if it was someone else? For example I have seen the practice of creating an ad-hoc Skype account for an interview. Now that employer can see my contacts.
- joecool1029 8y agoWhile I agree this is terrible, what is different about Facebook harvesting information to send "People You May Know" invite emails? Wasn't that far worse since it didn't even require that a person signup for Facebook? Couldn't the same correlations be driven as the author of this post discussed?
- pmlnr 8y agoWhy would it be ok, because someone did it before?
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoPeople use Skype to talk to doctors, psychiatrists, potential future employers etc, which presumably they're less likely to do using Facebook.
- spectaclepiece 8y agoThe story states there is no way to opt out but in preferences / contacts / privacy there is the option "Appear in suggestions" which I assume solves this but should have been opt-in. My grief with Skype goes deep, not to mention Skype for Business and the idiotic impossibility of adding contacts between S4B and Skype.
- fredley 8y agoThat Skype for Business and Skype are two totally un-interoperable things is inexcusable.
- bramblerose 8y agoThey have been interoperable for quite a while now: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/set-up-skype-for-business-online/let-skype-for-business-users-add-skype-contacts https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/set-up-sky...
- seedie 8y agoyou can do one-on-ones but you cannot add skype free users to a skype for business conference call. We're using Skype for Business and this limitation is very frustrating. On the bottom of your link: Not available with Skype contacts ---------------------------------- Multi-party IM conversations Audio and video conversations with three or more people Desktop and program sharing
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoSo, what can we do (in general) to stop this sort of "making stuff shittier" effect that seems inherent in Western Capitalism. Very rich, very successful companies buy products and make them worse -- what's the patch for that? Is there anything beyond government regulation, or "consumer buying power"?
- skocznymroczny 8y agoAre Skype for Business and Skype even related to each other? I always thought Skype for Business was just Lync with a Skype-like theme.
- photoguy112 8y agoCan we get a list of Skype alternatives going? I feel like it's time to dump the corporate behemoth mess.
- apples_oranges 8y agoThe article mentions 2 alternatives: > I recommend http://zoom.us http://zoom.us or http://appear.in http://appear.in as alternatives that don’t “help” you by exposing your contacts to the world.
- seqizz 8y agoI don't think we can call landlines via these.
- spurgu 8y agoI'm from Europe and I'm baffled that this would be a requirement for anyone these days. Are landlines still that common in the US?
- scraft 8y agoI have used Skype a lot for calling landlines and mobile phone numbers, in particular for people overseas where the phone bill would otherwise be high. I have also used this when I have zero phone reception but have access to Wifi.
- kofejnik 8y ago
- viraptor 8y agoThis is going to be "fun" for all the psychologists and other doctors meeting people over Skype. MS really failed here.
- sonnyblarney 8y agoThis is a big stain in the 'new MS' (really it's just the old MS) and we should hold Satya to account on this one. It's mind boggling how so much money and so many 'smart' Engineers could just run a product into the ground. Skype needs to be analyzed for why it's such a product failure. My guess: it's mostly driven by strategic objectives (i.e. downloads, revenues) and the Engineers may care, but that 'user experience' is not a primary concern. It blows my mind how Google, MS and others don't yet grasp this, and how even 'changing interfaces' has a considerable usability cost. We use ZOOM now for most things, it's very reliable, but the interface is kind of weird.
- athenot 8y ago> My guess: it's mostly driven by strategic objectives (i.e. downloads, revenues) and the Engineers may care, but that 'user experience' is not a primary concern. Bingo. Everyone is focused on one part of that platform and nobody owns the experience as a whole. So the overall experience suffers.
- mtnGoat 8y agoI stopped using Skype when they built a backdoor for the Chinese government. That and a few other very poor experiences with the service, including some very questionable security issues. Frankly, I hope it does off.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- x3tm 8y agoI used skype extensively in its pre-Microsoft era as pretty much all the academics i know. It was synonymous of exciting discussions with collaborators. It had something special which set it apart from usual calls. A kind of special space for discussions. Last time i used it it took me a day to figure out what my username was. Had to search forums, ask on the internet, and finally navigate the awful microsoft website back and forth to finally find a childish live:xxxxq122 username (MS blocked my 10+ years account because it didnt like the date of birth i provided in a hurry. I was “too young” to use the service). I have no idea now what happened to basic things like a contact list. The new interface should be studied in design schools on all the things that shouldn’t be done. I find myself using whatsapp or gtalk for meetings now. Having to call collaborators using the same device/service i use with my family. Thanks Microsoft.
- newsbinator 8y agoAfter 15 years as a customer, yesterday was the last day of my last Skype subscription. So long to the random designs, dropping calling features, horrible connections and barely-human customer support. You won't get another penny from me unless/until you do a 180.
- x3tm 8y agoWhat's the alternative service you're going to use now?
- newsbinator 8y agoSurprisingly: Viber. Viber Out works great for calling out to 50 countries, and most text communication is on eMail/Slack/iMessage/etc It's been a few days of Viber and already I see several pluses: * Putting a call on speaker takes one tap and doesn't hang my phone, unlike Skype which pops up the native iOS sound output device chooser for some reason. * Easy to see call history & times under a given contact (Skype did a weird center-aligned thing that made the information super-difficult for human eyes to parse) * Easy to edit contact name info (Skype made this like 5 menus deep) * Easy to set/remove contacts as favorites (Skype hid this somewhere new every few weeks)
- miki123211 8y agoA few months ago (shortly before GDPR) there were reports of company accounts being locked out of Skype because of age restrictions. Some people had normal, personal accounts which they used for business purposes with the birthdate set to the company's founding date. Then GDPR came in and you had to be over 16 or 18 to use Skype or your account required parental verification. To do this, you had to link the supposed child's account with the parent's. Of course, the paren't account had to have a credit card linked or undergo some Microsoft verification by sending an ID scan. Most people decided to go with the second option, as they didn't have or want to link a credit card with Microsoft. Of course, that verification took days, especially when so many users requested it, and for all that time they didn't have access to Skype, Office 365, Mail etc. I can provide a source (in polish) if anyone is interested. Of course, those restrictions didn't really work out for most (real) children as most people are already used to automatically provide a birthdate that's over 18.
- ehnto 8y agoIt feels almost inevitable that all the major platforms will get compromised in some way, especially as they grow in features and thus attack surface. I can only imagine the magnitude and persistence of attacks on these kinds of platforms. Even if it's possible for them to be technically sound, all it takes is a bad human to spoil all the hard engineering work. I wouldn't trust sensitive data on any of them, and with the way advertising tech and governments treat privacy, I'm not sure technology has a bright future in that regard. I would sooner write down a secret on a piece of paper and lock it in a drawer than keep them on a computer. It's much more practical to have retractable, replaceable secrets, so that you have agency over an inevitable leak of that secret. The way credit card companies handle breaches is a great example, they are very sympathetic to the fact that cards get stolen. I don't lead a particularly interesting life, so it's not really going to stop me from using computers, but on principal it's not very good that we can't trust the devices in our pockets.
- tedeh 8y agoCan anyone provide a screenshot on how the suggest feature looks? I'm trying to find it on Skype for Mac but no luck. Just for Windows still?
- distant_hat 8y agoIf it wasn't for the fact that Skype is one of the products that tends to work in China without interruptions (as opposed to Hangouts), I'd have deleted my account there long back.
- bluedino 8y agoSkype was on of those things your average salesperson could use, without any IT interaction. Microsoft ruined it when they introduced Skype for business, which isn't even the same thing? How confusing. Andreesen Horowitz must have been laughing all the way to the bank.
- beagle3 8y agoI opened the iPhone app, went to setting, turned it off. Then back out and in ... and it’s on again. Tried several more times - it shows “off” when clicked, but back on when I re-enter. I will try again from a desktop when I am next to one. I assume it’s incompetence rather than malice, but.... understandably, incompetence never works for the users, only against them.
- bad_user 8y agoWhen Microsoft switched Skype to Microsoft accounts I've lost 2/3 of my contacts list. I had valuable contacts in it that were just gone. Afterwards I contacted their support twice and both times I ended up talking with somebody that tried to convince me that it was my fault ("you must have created a second account"). I understand that this actually happens in the real world but after talking with support the second time with no result, I just gave up. And then I stopped using Skype, convinced my colleagues too, we switched to Slack, Hangouts, Zoom, whatever. Interestingly Microsoft has good support for other products. E.g. I contacted them twice about bugs in OneDrive and in both cases I received a prompt acknowledgement that the issue exists and then afterwards acknowledgement that it was fixed. But the experience with Skype was just terrible. When people accuse them of running Skype into the ground, I tend to agree.
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- 8bitsrule 8y agoAt this point, it might just be easier to report on sites that -haven't- been exposed. (If there are any.)