Skype for Android has a really weird issue. And it’s a massive privacy problem.

Believe it or not, Skype has a feature called automatic answering that automatically answers your calls for you. And on the Android app, the feature is malfunctioning, automatically answering your incoming calls even if the feature is disabled.

Android Police reports that users have been reporting the issue as early as January of this year, which seems to be caused by smartwatches. Those who connected their devices with a smartwatch will have their calls automatically answered because of a bug in the app, but disconnecting your smartwatch helps temporarily avoid the problem.

That is still not good enough, though. If you are simply not aware of the problem, your incoming calls can be answered automatically by the Skype app, putting you in an awkward situation. For one, you may not even be aware that a call has been answered, or the caller might hear things you don’t want them to hear, putting your privacy at risk.

The issue is identical to the one with FaceTime where a massive privacy bug allowed users to hear the other person’s microphone even before the call was answered.

The good news is that the issue seems to have been resolved on the Skype Preview app, so a fix should be coming to the public soon. Microsoft hasn’t officially acknowledged the issue, however, which is very odd. I have reached out to Microsoft for more on this issue and will update this story if I hear back.

Tagged with Microsoft, Skype, Skype for Android