Freelance consultant for digital heritage

Skype Privacy Settings

I use Skype on one platform or another every day. I use it mainly on my Mac, and occasionally on my Nokia E71 via Skype for 3 (if out and about) or Skype’s own Symbian client (if wifi is near). On rare occasions I’ll use Fring, because it has the most fluid chat functions.

It seems as if every time I launch Skype for 3, which is essentially a rebranded version of iSkoot, or Fring, the default privacy settings on my Mac’s Skype client are reset to only allow calls and chats from people in my address book. This is deeply annoying. Skype for 3/iSkoot/Fring do not allow you to adjust privacy settings – the used has no control over them.

I have to try and remember if I have used Skype for 3 or Fring and reset the permissions on my Mac. Every. Time.

It wasn’t until a friend told me that my Skype Online Number had been engaged for several days, that I managed to work out what had happened. Skype – please allow your desktop clients to lock their privacy settings. I’m sure I’m not the only one to be affected by this.

It would be useful to have a different privacy profile for when I am mobile, and while Skype’s own Symbian client allows this, the call quality simply isn’t up to much over 3G. In the next version of Skype, I don’t want any extra whizzy features, it’s fine as it is (v. 2.8 on Mac) – just refinements to privacy settings, and I’ll be a happy man.