On: Skype and Privacy

Dear Editor,

Jill Savege Scharff's recent paper discusses modifications of the psychoanalytic setting (or frame) using the telephone and/or Internet to allow sessions to take place when analyst and patient are in different geographical locations (Scharff, 2012). Her paper has the merit that it addresses both technological and psychoanalytical aspects of the setting, and the relations between them. However, there are inaccuracies in her account of the technology, including VoIP1 telephony of which Skype is one example, and these could have implications for psychoanalytic practice. Her paper raises many interesting and important issues but my comments here are confined to her assumptions about security and privacy. She writes:

VOIP has the advantage that it is a secure method of communication … VOIP is thought to be secure because it sends information in fragmented bundles that do not connect until they reach the destination. But because it does not offer encryption, VOIP is not as secure as using a Videotechnology Company (VTC).2

This is not entirely clear or accurate and could be misleading. The phrase “fragmented bundles” apparently refers to packet-switching, which is the basis of all Internet communication, including Internet-based VoIP such as Skype, but also email, web browsing, etc. Packet-switching without encryption offers only limited security against physical interception, and none against eavesdropping techniques that use readily available software. Some VoIP and web-based videoconferencing services do not use encryption, but others do. Skype calls are encrypted, which may partly explain the widely held but unwarranted belief that Skype is secure.

Because Skype uses proprietary software its encryption method is not publicly available and therefore cannot be independently evaluated. Moreover, recent empirical research (Dupasquier et al., 2011) has shown that significant information is recoverable from intercepted Skype voice calls, withou