The United States National Security Agency (NSA) has had full access to Skype data, including voice and video calls, shared files, and text conversations since February 2011, a leaked document reveals.

German publication Der Spiegel revealed a new document provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that confirms that since February 2011, the NSA has been capable of capturing pretty much every single Skype call made to a landline or mobile phone.

The NSA document dated August 2012 and called “User's Guide for PRISM Skype Collection” also indicates that, since July 2011, the agency has expanded the Skype program to monitor all peer-to-peer Skype traffic, which includes every single activity that Internet users can perform on Microsoft's VoIP platform, such as text messaging and file transfers.

Microsoft provided keys to help the NSA decrypt traffic

If you're asking Microsoft, the company has never helped the NSA spy on its users, and a statement provided by Redmond itself with several occasions supports its point of view.

“We will not provide governments with direct or unfettered access to customer data or encryption keys,” Microsoft said when accused of helping the government spy on its users.

And yet, the leaked document shows that Microsoft was deeply involved into this spying program and also offered the government keys to decrypt traffic.

Der Spiegel writes that the full Skype traffic was approved through a warrant by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, so Microsoft pretty much had no other option than to comply with NSA's requirement. The warrant stated that NSA could monitor Skype traffic through the PRISM program and collect data from users in real-time.

The document also explains how the collection of Skype chat data actually works.

“Depending upon what you target is doing, a copy of his chat history can be sent in-bulk (which can span multiple chat sessions). If your target, for example, has 3 separate chat sessions with another individual on his laptop, the logs into his Skype account on his desktop, the chat history of those 3 separate chat sessions will be transmitted from this laptop to his desktop so that both his computers have a log of the whole conversation.”

Microsoft suggests that government surveillance is possible

Microsoft has always stated that user data is provided to the government based on a warrant and the Skype Privacy Policy indeed confirms this, and given the fact that the spying program launched by the NSA was based on a judge order, Redmond cannot actually be blamed or anything, because it had no other choice than to comply with these requirements.

“We may access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your private content (such as the content of your instant messages, stored video messages, voicemails or file transfers), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to: comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process from competent authorities, including from law enforcement or other government agencies,” the privacy policy reads.

We've reached out to Microsoft for some comments on this new case and we will update the article accordingly.