Skype For Android Exposing Your Personal Information

What a shame. It hasn't even been a week since I discovered that a version of Skype with video had been released into the wild for the HTC Thunderbolt and now we are learning that it along with the version available in the market is full of security holes.

Android Police has discovered that both the leaked and Android Market versions of Skype (apparently does not include the Version exclusive version) can expose everything from your name to your date of birth to rogue applications that know where to look all without the need for any special permissions or root access. Not a good thing by any means.

So what exactly should you do? If you stick to popular apps from well known developers you should be fine until Skype releases a patch for this but if you are the adventurous sort, uninstalling the app until the fix has been released might be your best option. Skype has been made aware of the problem so hopefully it won't be long before they take care of this.

For full details, check out Android Police's detailed post here and watch proof of concept below.

Get Skype Mobile For Your Thunderbird

Anyone waiting often impatiently for the HTC Thunderbolt to be released by Verizon probably remembers the hype surrounding the TBolt's front facing camera and integration with Skype. If so then you were probably just as disappointed when it was released not only without the much hyped Skype integration but without any working version of Skype.

Today that is changing. Droid Life has come across a Skype with Video .apk that works on the Thunderbolt and it can be downloaded here or here. Be advised it only seems to work with the Thunderbolt so those of you out there with other Android Handsets with front facing cameras will have to look elsewhere.

It loaded and runs just fine for me (haven't tried the video yet) so enjoy!

Related: Those with Thunderbirds will also likely enjoy the latest rumor that has us getting the Gingerbread ( Android 2.3) update before the end of June.