After TOM, makers of TOM-Skype – the Chinese version of the popular VoIP/messenger program, were caught with their pants down by Canadian web researchers, Skype Inc., which is owned by EBay, are trying to save face.
Skype publicly disclosed as early as 2006 that a filtering system was installed on the TOM-Skype client and that this system would filter out… “unsuitable” messages, but that these were “simply discarded and not...transmitted anywhere.”

Contrary to Popular belief though, snooping around by Canadian researchers through poorly secured servers belonging to TOM discovered that – surprise, surprise – TOM-Skype is logging users’ information. This includes any and all messages which include “sensitive” keywords such as “Communist party”, “Falun Gong”, “quit the CCP” and other such, in essence the same messages which are blocked from being sent by TOM-Skype. The Canadian team’s findings also suggest that the system also logs any messages by repeat-senders of the offensive keywords, even if these messages do not include the words.

In the wake of the worldwide uproar caused by naiveté, Skype president Josh Silverman stated that the US company was “very concerned” about these issues. He has good reason to be, but more with the bad publicity this brings on his company than the privacy of Chinese citizens. Nevertheless, he did claim that “It was our understanding that it was not Tom’s protocol to upload and store chat messages with certain keywords, and we are now inquiring with Tom to find out why the protocol changed.”
In the same blog post, despite his disapproval of the fact that TOM kept them in the dark about the logging, he does remark the truth that those shocked by the goings-on are wont to face:

“It is common knowledge that censorship does exist in China and that the Chinese government has been monitoring communications in and out of the country for many years. This, in fact, is true for all forms of communication such as emails, fixed and mobile phone calls, and instant messaging between people within China and between China and other countries. TOM, like every other communications service provider operating in China, has an obligation to be compliant if they are to be able to operate in China at all.”

Google, in the past, have faced this selfsame problem, as have Yahoo. Both have justified their actions in the same way. If you’re a major business, and you want to take your business to China, you obey Chinese laws. This does not justify the actions of the country’s government, but it does hit the hammer right on the head: corporations aren’t there to enlighten and free humanity’s mind, they’re there to make money. And they will ruthlessly do so by any means necessary.
Again, I’m not saying this is right, just saying it’s something to bear in mind before being surprised by something like this next time. Yes, there will be a next time. If people didn’t thrive on scandals, we journalists would be out of a job.