LUXEMBOURG, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Officials in Luxembourg are looking into whether online chatting service Skype secretly passed data to the U.S. National Security Agency.
Gerard Lommel, Luxembourg's data protection commissioner, initiated the investigation into Skype's privacy policies after it was revealed in June the company had ties to the NSA, British newspaper The Guardian reported Friday.
Lommel declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
If it is discovered that Skype, whose headquarters are in Luxembourg, covertly passed users' communications along to the U.S. government, the Microsoft-owned company could potentially face criminal and administrative sanctions.
"The only people who lose are users," says Eric King, head of research at human rights group Privacy International. "Skype promoted itself as a fantastic tool for secure communications around the world, but quickly caved to government pressure and can no longer be trusted to protect user privacy."
