Conspiracy theorists had long warned the world about Microsoft. They told us one day the overlords in Redmond would take over the world, enslaving us all. When Microsoft acquired Skype, many users, especially those on non-Windows platforms, expressed everything from mild concern to outright terror.

Time passed, however, and little seemed to change with Skype. But now the tech world is once again talking conspiracies, as reports have surfaced that Microsoft may have modified Skype to make it easier for the U.S. government to spy on its citizens. Is this simply more crazy talk from the conspiracy theorists? Perhaps, but this time the talk was just close enough to the truth to get the pundits talking as well.

The Supernode Saga

It all started when Microsoft began moving around data. Some of what Skype calls “supernodes” did not receive the proper updates that they needed back in 2010, leading to a major outage. Microsoft, which deals with large distribution issues all the time, did the only logical thing it could: moved them to its own secure dedicated Linux servers. Yes, conspiracy theorists, Microsoft has Linux servers.

Normally, Skype’s nodes and supernodes are geographically dispersed, and information flows to and from them, creating and dissolving connections as users call and then end their conversations. Some hackers claim to have written some code that proves Microsoft is actually repositioning its supernodes to make it easier for the government to listen in on Skype voice conversations. According to these hackers, Skype supernodes not only make connections but also route traffic and could easily be used to route that traffic through monitored servers.

Skype Responds

Wiretapping has always been next to impossible with Skype, and governments have been known to complain about this in the past. It did not take long for Skype to speak up on this issue by way of Mark Gillett, Corporate VP of Product Engineering and Operations, who said that “the changes were made in order to ‘improve the Skype user experience’, not to open the doors to tapping.”

According to Gillett, the underlying architecture of Skype has not changed, and supernodes still only allow users to connect their calls. The calls themselves do not pass through the supernodes. “We believe this approach has immediate performance, scalability and availability benefits for the hundreds of millions of users that make up the Skype community,” Gillett said.

Damage Control

The truth of the matter is, Skype’s reassuring words may not alleviate the concerns of hackers. The best Microsoft can hope for now is to at least do damage control on Skype’s image in the view of the millions of non-hackers who use the service. After all, major Internet service providers allowed the government to wiretap, even without warrants, without any customer uprisings.

As for the hackers, it is worth noting that the “whistle blower” himself is also responsible for skypeopensource, a Github project that has released reverse-engineered Skype code to the public in hopes of wrestling control of the software from the clutches of Microsoft. To say there might be ulterior motives is an understatement. As always, the truth likely rests somewhere in between all of the misinformation from both sides.