On: Reply to ‘Skype and Privacy’

Dear Editor,

It is useful to have updated information on communications technology drawn from very recent sources and published in security studies literature that most analysts do not read. I accept Dr Churcher's correction that Skype is not as secure as some people have been led to think. Maheu (2012) shares Dr Churcher's views on Skype but for slightly different reasons. She states that, even though Skype offers encryption, it does not claim to be HI-PAA compliant and, being a social media platform, it is unsuitable for telemental health assessment and treatment. I also stand corrected that VTC refers not to video technology company but to video teleconferencing. In my article I recommended VTC (meaning a paid videoteleconferencing capability) as the most secure technology to support distance psychoanalysis. More specifically, what is best is VTC with a medical-grade platform that claims to be HIPAA compliant (Maheu, 2012).

Nevertheless, Skype is in use by psychotherapists and psychoanalysts who believe that encryption makes it secure. Neumann (2012) referring to a presentation by Snyder (2011), distinguishes three types of Skype: “Skype phone, Skype voice over Internet protocol (VOIP), and Skype computer-to-computer connections, of which only Skype computer-to-computer is secure” (Snyder, 2011). On the contrary, Dr Churcher, drawing from Dupasquier et al. (2011), points out that, even though Skype is “known for its strong security policy … it is not entirely secure”, and even though Skype uses encryption it cannot be regarded as secure because its “proprietary software cannot be independently evaluated.” Dr Churcher quotes a review of security studies that found instances of “eavesdropping, interception, and modification” during Skype (Keromytis, 2012, in press). It is not clear to me whether these studies were focused on Skype phone, Skype VoIP, or Skype computer-to-computer, or indeed if distinctions in their degrees of security are relevant to the discussion. I