Skype is having a bug problem. A number of Skype users have posted complaints on the company’s Support Network about a bug that is sending messages to random users on their contact list.
Although only a handful of Skype users have reported this problem over at the support forum, the problem is pretty serious and could lead to major problems. The users say that, following an update in June, instant messages have frequently and inadvertently been forwarded to random people in their contact lists.
To cut a long story short, third-parties are seeing private stuff they were never meant to see, and this is a serious breach of privacy. However, Skype is now fully aware of the problem and is looking into the matter, working on a fix.
As per Skype’s official statement dealing with the problem, “Based on recent Skype customer community posts and our own investigation over the past couple of days, we have identified a bug that we are working hard to fix. This issue occurs only when a user's Skype client crashes during a Skype IM session, which may in some cases result in the last IM entered or sent prior to the crash being delivered to a different IM contact after the Skype client is rebooted or logged in as a new user.”
The Skype clients impacted due to this problem include Skype 5.10 for Windows, Skype 5.8 for Mac, Skype 4.0 for Linux and Skype 1.2 for Windows Phone.
“We are currently investigating and hope to provide a solution for this soon,” a company spokesperson, speaking to Engadget, acknowledged that bug and said that “in rare circumstances IM’s between two contacts could be sent to an unintended third contact.”
The company, now owned by Microsoft, revealed that a fix is in the works and will be available in the next few days.
