Encrypted or not, Skype communications prove “vital” to NSA surveillance | Ars Technica

Now comes word that the National Security Agency is also able to work around Skype crypto—so much so that analysts have deemed the Microsoft-owned service "vital" to a key surveillance regimen known as PRISM. FURTHER READING Think your Skype messages get end-to-end encryption? Think again "PRISM has a new collection capability: Skype stored communications," a previously confidential NSA memo from 2013 declared. "Skype stored communications will contain unique data which is not collected via normal real-time surveillance collection." The data includes buddy lists, credit card information, call records, user account data, and "other material" that is of value to the NSA's special source operations.