Is Skype safe for a clinical consultation? In June last year, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said in their publication RACGP advice on Skype: “There is currently no clear evidence to suggest that Skype is unsuitable for clinical use”.

This year however, new information came to light suggesting that Skype, owned by Microsoft, may not be as safe as we thought. Here are three reasons why you should be careful to use Skype as a professional video conferencing tool:

• Skype is not encrypted from end-to-end. Microsoft can intercept information transmitted via Skype.
• Skype tells the world where users are by exposing IP addresses. This allows criminals to target cyber attacks.
• The US National Security Agency (NSA) can listen in and watch Skype chats with their data collection program Prism.

Interestingly, Skype’s privacy policy states:

Skype is committed to respecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your…