Skype was Microsoft's consumer video/voice-calling and chat service; Microsoft officially retired the consumer app on May 5, 2025 in favor of Microsoft Teams Free, though the Skype brand and its data-handling obligations persist through an extended data-export/deletion wind-down. Skype falls under Microsoft's single, ecosystem-wide Privacy Statement rather than a standalone policy: calls generate metadata (time, date, numbers/usernames) collected by Microsoft, and Microsoft's account data feeds a shared advertising-ID/cookie-based personalized-advertising system with third-party ad partners. Skype is not end-to-end encrypted by default. Ownership is unambiguous and well documented via Microsoft Corporation's SEC filings (CIK 0000789019); no Skype-specific regulatory action, breach, or audit was found in the sources fetched for this draft.
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Microsoft's Privacy Statement's dedicated Skype section states that Microsoft collects usage data about calls made via the Skype Dial Pad, including the time, date, and the numbers or user names involved; the statement's general collection section separately discloses that Microsoft also obtains user data from its own affiliates, subsidiaries, and third parties.
SEC EDGAR's company-filings page for Microsoft Corp confirms Microsoft as an SEC-reporting public company under CIK 0000789019, filing 10-Ks that disclose corporate structure and subsidiaries.
Exhibit 21 to Microsoft's FY2025 Form 10-K lists the significant subsidiaries of Microsoft Corporation as of June 30, 2025 (e.g. LinkedIn Corporation, Activision Blizzard, Inc.); Skype does not appear as a listed subsidiary, consistent with Skype being operated directly as a Microsoft Corporation product/brand rather than through a separate corporate entity.
The same advertising section states that users can separately opt out of personalized advertising delivered by third-party ad partners by visiting those partners' own sites, confirming that account/usage data reaches named-category third parties for ad targeting.
Microsoft's own support page confirms Skype's consumer service was retired on May 5, 2025, and lays out a disclosed data-handling wind-down: users are directed to an export portal, with a stated data-deletion start date of April 1, 2026, giving an extended, published window rather than an undisclosed or abrupt shutdown.
The privacy statement's advertising section discloses that Microsoft-controlled ads in Windows apps rely on an advertising ID, which users can opt out of in Windows settings, but notes that opting out still results in non-personalized ads being shown rather than no ads.