Skype tied to NSA for surveillance in Luxembourg

There was a time when Skype was the darling of privacy advocates who thought that it was the safer alternative to cell phone and email communications. Now, it might be the biggest culprit.

Skype is being investigated by Luxembourg’s data protection commissioner over concerns about its secret involvement with the US National Security Agency (NSA) spy programme Prism, the Guardian has learned.

The Microsoft-owned internet chat company could potentially face criminal and administrative sanctions, including a ban on passing users’ communications covertly to the US signals intelliigence agency.