Skype, the online text message and voice service owned by auction giant eBay, said it had been unaware that the Internet chat of users in China was being stored on computer servers by Chinese mobile firm TOM Online.

Citizen Lab, a group of computer security experts at the University of Toronto, revealed Wednesday that TOM Online was spying on TOM-Skype users in China and collecting messages with specific keywords.

Citizen Lab said the messages, with words such as "Tibet," "Communist Party" or "Democracy," contained Internet addresses, usernames and other information which could make the senders and recipients easily identifiable.

Skype president Josh Silverman said in a statement that TOM Online "just like any other communications company in China, has established procedures to meet local laws and regulations.

"These regulations include the requirement to monitor and block instant messages containing certain words deemed 'offensive' by the Chinese authorities," Silverman said.

"It is common knowledge that censorship does exist in China and that the Chinese government has been monitoring communications in and out of the country for many years," he said.

He recalled that in April 2006, Skype admitted that TOM Online "operated a text filter that blocked certain words in chat messages" and unsuitable messages were to be "discarded and not displayed or transmitted anywhere."

"It was our understanding that it was not TOM's protocol to upload and store chat messages with certain keywords, and we are now inquiring with TOM to find out why the protocol changed," he said.

"We are currently addressing the wider issue of the uploading and storage of certain messages with TOM," Silverman said, stressing that the millions of people around the world using standard Skype software were unaffected.

"Skype-to-Skype communications are, and always have been, completely secure and private," he said.

In a statement, Hong Kong-based TOM Group, which is part of tycoon Li Ka-shing's business empire, said it was operating within Chinese laws.

"TOM Group reiterated that as a Chinese company, we adhere to rules and regulations in China where we operate our businesses," the statement said. A spokeswoman would give no further details.

In a 16-page report, Citizen Lab said "TOM-Skype is censoring and logging text chat messages that contain specific, sensitive keywords and may be engaged in more targeted surveillance.

"These logged messages contain keywords relating to sensitive topics such as Taiwan independence, the Falungong, and political opposition to the Communist Party of China," it said.

"These text messages, along with millions of records containing personal information, are stored on insecure publicly accessible web servers," Citizen Lab added.

The researchers said they gained access to eight TOM-Skype servers.

"With just one username it is possible to identify all the users that have sent messages to or received messages from the original user," they said.

The Citizen Lab team said there was no evidence the captured data had been used by the Chinese authorities.

But they asked: "To what extent do TOM Online and Skype cooperate with the Chinese government in monitoring the communications of activists and dissidents as well as ordinary citizens?

"What is clear is that TOM-Skype is engaging in extensive surveillance with seemingly little regard for the security and privacy of Skype users."

The monitoring by TOM-Skype is not the first time concerns have been raised about surveillance and censorship in China, most recently during the Beijing Olympics.

China exercises strict control over the Internet, blocking sites linked to Chinese dissidents, the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, the Tibetan government-in-exile and those with information on the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

A number of US companies, including giants Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Yahoo, have been hauled before the US Congress in recent years and accused of complicity in building what has been called the "Great Firewall of China."

The Citizen Lab report, "Breaching Trust," was published on Wednesday on the website of Information Warfare Monitor, a joint project between Citizen Lab and the SecDev Group, a think-tank on security issues based in Ottawa.

earlier related report
TOM Group says follows China laws in Skype privacy row
TOM Group said Friday it adhered to Chinese laws, after security experts revealed the media and Internet firm was archiving politically sensitive messages sent using Skype.

"TOM Group reiterated that as a Chinese company, we adhere to rules and regulations in China where we operate our businesses. We have no other comment," the Hong Kong-based group said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for TOM Group, which is part of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's business empire, refused to answer any other questions about its operations, including whether it monitors messages sent in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong operates under a different legal system to the China mainland.

Skype, the online text message and voice service owned by auction giant eBay, acknowledged Thursday that its Chinese partner TOM Online had been archiving politically sensitive text messages.

Citizen Lab, a group of computer security experts at the University of Toronto, revealed that TOM Online was spying on TOM-Skype users in China and collecting messages with specific keywords.

Citizen Lab said the messages, with words such as "Tibet," "Communist Party" or "Democracy," contained Internet addresses, usernames and other information which could make the senders and recipients easily identifiable.

Skype president Josh Silverman said in a statement that TOM Online "just like any other communications company in China, has established procedures to meet local laws and regulations."

However, Skype said it had been unaware that the sensitive Internet chat was being stored on computer servers by TOM Online.

TOM Group, originally a dot.com start up but now a media and advertising company combined, has increasingly focused on the mainland market.

In 2006, TOM said it removed 40 percent of its mainland website postings on TOM.com, following an order from Beijing to weed out "harmful" Internet content.

China exercises strict control over the Internet, blocking sites linked to Chinese dissidents, the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, the Tibetan government-in-exile and those with information on the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

A number of US companies, including giants Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Yahoo, have been hauled before the US Congress in recent years and accused of complicity in building what has been called the "Great Firewall of China."

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