Microsoft has recently organized atechnology named, Legal intercept. The company is planning to file apatent for the tech, which will permit it to record, monitor andintercept all Skype calls.


Microsoft had filed the patentapplication for Legal Intercept in 2009. However, the companyacquired Skype in May. The patent application by Microsoft hasn’tbeen approved till date and is still in process. The informationabout it was made public by the company in the second half of June.


Microsoft has also given a detailedexplanation about the technology that it is using in its patentapplication. The information rendered by Microsoft about Legalintercept suggests that the tool is akin to equipments used bynumerous telecom companies and other agencies in accord with thegovernment policies. Microsoft has made it clear that their tool hasbeen designed to record all communication that occurs through everykind of VoIP networks including Skype.


According to the information providedby Microsoft, “Data associated with a request to establish acommunication is modified to cause the communication to beestablished via a path that includes a recording agent.” Thus, the main work of the recording agent is to record theconversation without any delay.


The description further added,“Modification may include, for example, adding, changing, and/ordeleting data within the data. The data as modified is then passed toa protocol entity that uses the data to establish a communicationsession.”


According to the company, its tool willhelp to clear the loopholes present in the current monitoring toolswhich are devised to intercept the Plain Old Telephone Service(POTS).


Mr. Michael Froomkin, who is theProfessor of Law in the University Of Miami School Of Law, said onreading the patent description that the acceptance of patent wouldpermit Microsoft to make Skype CALEA (Communications Assistance forLaw Enforcement Act) sufficient. CALEA is a law that commandsall the telecommunication carriers and communication equipmentsmanufacturers to capacitate their equipments for surveillanceconducted by The Federal Law Enforcement Agencies.


Froomkin added, “First, making acommunication technology FBI-friendly means also making itdictator-friendly, and in the long run this is not good formovements like the Arab Spring, however Second, experience shows thatbuilding in back doors invites exploits.”


Adding further, the Professor said thatSkype has always been secretive about whether or not it abides by theCALEA style. Skype has not disclose the manner in which it works andencrypts information. That is why users have less knowledge about theworking of the company and have to take a lot of things on faith.


Sarcastically he added, “Historyteaches us over and over that faith is very easily misplaced.”Jeffrey Chester who is the executive director of the Center forDigital Democracy also told that the legal intercept technologyallies with the future plans of Microsoft. Chester said that the mainaim of the company is to amalgamate the tracking technology in Skype.