Microsoft Finally Brings Encrypted Conversations to Skype
Security is a big concern for many users and while most typically think of that as meaning you protect your PC from malware, there are also easy ways to protect your conversations as well. Starting today, Skype is testing out a new feature called Private Conversations that delivers end-to-end encryption to your chats.
The encrypted communication channel works for both audio and text messages and files as well but not video calls. Microsoft is using the Signal Protocol by Open Whisper Systems to secure the data and for now, you can only use this feature with contacts that are participating in the Skype Insider Preview.
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If you do start a Private Conversation, the contents of those chats will be hidden from the chat list and notifications will be turned off as well.
On one hand, this is an excellent new feature for Skype but on the other, why did it take so long to arrive? Many other chat services have offered this functionality for some time and further, they encrypt all chats not just one specific type of conversation.
This is a good start for Skype but what I do hope to see is that they make all messages and audio calls encrypted by default rather than being opt-in. Seeing as it is in beta today, this may become a reality but Microsoft has yet to acknowledge if they will go down this path.
Private Conversations are available now to Skype Insiders using Skype version 8.13.76.8 for iOS, Android, Linux, Mac, and Windows Desktop.
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tobiaalberti
<p>I find this article to be unclear and misleading. Starting with the title.</p><p><br></p><p>All Skype conversations have been encrypted for some time now, as have been conversations on services like Facebook Messenger and Telegram.</p><p><br></p><p>The news here is that Microsoft on top of that will be adding an opt-in feature that will give Skype users the ability to have end-to-end encrypted conversations as well.</p><p><br></p><p>The difference between encryption and end-to-end encryption in this case is (put it simply) the following:</p><p>Encrypted conversations are not really private because Microsoft and other parties have the ability to access them, while end-to-end encrypted conversations (if implemented correctly) are more secure because only the people involved have the keys needed to decrypt them.</p><p><br></p><p>I find your article to be misleading because (starting with the title) it makes it seem like Skype conversations are not currently encrypted (which is not true), and I find it to be unclear because it mentions end-to-end encryption one time at the beginning and then it keeps referring to it as simply "encryption", offering no way of clearly knowing when you're referring to what Skype already has and when you're referring to what Skype will offer in the future.</p><p><br></p><p>Regards.</p>