Skype Being Investigated in Luxembourg for Alleged NSA Ties
It was announced on Friday by Luxembourg’s data protection commissioner that Microsoft-owned Skype is being investigated related to complaints that it turned over user information to the United States National Security Agency (NSA) PRISM program. The Skype users involved in the complaints are Luxembourg-based.
The data protection commissioner is part of Luxembourg’s Data Protection Authority or CNPD. A spokesman for the CNPD, Tom Kayser, told the public on Friday that several complaints against Skype had been received. He did not divulge details due to the continuing investigation.
CNPD will publish its findings related to this investigation within the next 3 weeks but there are no indications as to what the sanctions will be. Possible outcomes could be fines, criminal prosecution, and administrative sanctions.
Luxembourg has a constitution that places top priority on its citizens’ right to privacy and surveillance of anyone requires authorization by a special tribunal or judicial authority.
The U.S. NSA PRISM program was first established in 2007 spawned by the Protect America Act of 2007 signed by the Bush Administration. The program is overseen by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court which operates under directives specified by the Surveillance Act of 1978.
The objective of PRISM is to obtain data of interest from various internet companies that otherwise travels encrypted. Data of interest would be that to protect the U.S. from terror attacks.
However, earlier this year, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed that the data being mined through PRISM was far more than the public would approve of and that it even involved criminal activities.
The information shared publicly by Snowden resulted in his defection to Moscow, Russia where he resides today under temporary asylum and is still wanted by U.S. Federal authorities.
Skype, a messaging and free calling service, was once noted for its feature of evading surveillance but such is no longer the case today.
Skype moved its corporate headquarters to Luxembourg because of the country’s favorable tax structure. Thus, it comes under the data protection laws of the host country. Other companies such as Netflix and Amazon make their home in Luxembourg for the same reason.
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