Source: Windows Central
What you need to know
- The Skype Twitter account shared a post discussing how the service respects people's privacy.
- The post highlights that Skype does not sell personal private data to third parties.
- Microsoft does, however, use data obtained from third parties.
The Skype Twitter account recently tried to ride the wave of WhatsApp hate. WhatsApp came under fire after the service changed its privacy policies. With many people on the hunt for the best WhatsApp alternatives, Skype tried to draw in some more people. Unfortunately for the Skype team, they didn't get the response they were likely hoping for.
In addition to the expected internet trolling of people bashing Skype, discussing other services, and calling Skype a fossil, people also noticed something about Skype's tweet. ZDNet highlights that within the tweet, Skype included a link to its Microsoft privacy statement that clearly states that Skype uses data that is obtained from third parties.
Under the section "How we use personal data,", Microsoft's privacy policy states (emphasis added):
Microsoft uses the data we collect to provide you with rich, interactive experiences. In particular, we use data to:
- Provide our products, which includes updating, securing, and troubleshooting, as well as providing support. It also includes sharing data, when it is required to provide the service or carry out the transactions you request.
- Improve and develop our products.
- Personalize our products and make recommendations.
- Advertise and market to you, which includes sending promotional communications, targeting advertising, and presenting you with relevant offers.
- We also use the data to operate our business, which includes analyzing our performance, meeting our legal obligations, developing our workforce, and doing research.
In carrying out these purposes, we combine data we collect from different contexts (for example, from your use of two Microsoft products) or obtain from third parties to give you a more seamless, consistent, and personalized experience, to make informed business decisions, and for other legitimate purposes.
To their credit, Microsoft's Skype does not sell personal data to third parties, so Skype's tweet is accurate. The company uses the data it collects on its own to improve Microsoft services. The company does, however, use data collected from third parties, so it isn't completely clean of third-party data collection.
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

Microsoft is testing 1080p xCloud streams for Xbox Game Pass gaming
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is currently limited to 720p for streaming to mobile devices, but we've seen evidence that it's about to get bumped up to 1080p. Here's what you need to know.

Here are 10 Xbox games that need 'FPS Boost'
FPS Boost is another impressive feature currently available in the Xbox backwards compatibility utility belt. Here are 10 games we want to see take advantage of enhanced framerates.

XP-Pen Artist 22 PC drawing tablet review: Digital art as easy as it is fun
XP-Pen make a huge range of drawing tablets for hobbyists, beginners, and professionals. Recently, we had the opportunity to take a look at one of their higher-end offerings in the Artist 22 (2nd gen) tablet, and came away incredibly impressed. Here's what you need to know.

Complete list of apps supported by NVIDIA RTX Voice
NVIDIA RTX Voice can remove the background noise from your streams, voice chats, and video conferences. Here are all the Windows apps with official NVIDIA RTX Voice support.