From what I gather the issue in Australia with data retention suggests for instance most companies across the board store all info for 30 days or so - that is nothing new at all.
The retention for 2 years is new and if companies like Skype want to run in a country like Australia etc then the storage time with be longer. At present that Eula isn't too far off the standard in place.
Also off your link:
4.4.3. Affiliates
Skypes affiliate network program partner allows third parties to introduce people to Skype. Our affiliates may send cookies to your computer to allow them to receive information (a) when you click on a Skype related link on one of our affiliate partner sites, and/or (b) when you make a purchase on Skypes website, for the purpose of paying commission to the affiliate partner. If you re-visit Skypes site directly, our affiliate network program partner can recognize you and reward the third-party affiliate partner site that referred you to our site. These cookies are not within Skypes control and for more information please visit our affiliate network partner Commission Junctions site at: »www.cj.com/privacy
Suggests if you do not allow third party cookies in your browser then it may help similar to any other web page. Although there seems to be settings for that too:
4.5 Your Choices about Cookies
We dont recommend that you restrict or block cookies as this may impact on the functionality of our websites and products. However, if you choose to do so, please see the options available to you below. You can also find comprehensive information about cookies at www.aboutcookies.org.
4.5.1 Browser Cookies
The Help option on the toolbar of most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, how to delete cookies or how to disable cookies altogether.
Skype software browser cookies can be disabled by: accessing the File menu from your Skype software client toolbar, choosing the Privacy option and un-checking the Allow Skype Browser Cookies box.
4.5.2 Local Shared Objects (Flash Cookies)
You can manage the usage of flash cookies via »www.macromedia.com/suppo ··· ger.html.
You may also manage flash cookies through your browser depending on how recent the version of Internet Explorer (or other browser) and media player you are using. Please also visit the Adobe website at »kb2.adobe.com/cps/526/52 ··· ee8.html
4.5.3 Analytics
To opt out of Omniture analytic cookies, please visit: »smetrics.skype.com/optout.html
To opt out of Google Analytics cookies, please visit: »tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
5. Your Advertising Choices
5.1 Third Party Advertisements
Some Skype software clients may enable third-party advertisements provided by Microsoft Advertising. In order to provide ads of greater interest to you, these ads may be targeted based on non-personally identifiable Skype profile information (including profile information from linked LiveID accounts), such as age, gender, country of residence, and language preference, as well as other information Microsoft Advertising collects outside the Skype software client. For instance, Microsoft Advertising may utilize the same browser cookies set by Microsoft websites to enhance targeting within the Skype software client. You may opt-out of Microsoft targeted ads in any Skype software client that enables targeted ads by visiting the privacy menu in the Skype software client toolbar. If you opt-out, you will still receive advertisements based on your country of residence, language preference and IP address location, but other targeting information will not be used. Please note that the only way to ensure that Microsoft Advertising does not present targeted ads within the Skype client is to opt-out through the mechanism described above. Although you may opt-out of receiving targeted ads from Microsoft Advertising through your browser by visiting »choice.live.com/advertis ··· ntchoice, or the NAI or DAA sites described below, we cannot ensure that those mechanisms are effective within the Skype client depending on your browser. For more information about how Microsoft Advertising collects and uses information, please see the Microsoft Advertising Privacy Supplement.
In some instances, Microsoft Advertising may facilitate the placement of advertisements in Skype software client by other online advertising networks. These companies currently include, but are not limited to: 24/7 Real Media, aCerno,Inc, AdBlade, AdConion, AdFusion, Advertising.com, AppNexus, Bane Media, Brand.net, CasaleMedia, Collective Media, Fox Interactive, Interclick, Millennial, ROI Media, Social Media, SpecificMedia, Tribal Fusion, ValueClick, Yahoo!, YuMe and Zumobi. If you have opted-out of targeted ads in the Skype client as outlined above, Skype will not pass any profile information to such advertising providers with the ad request. However, because these third parties may place cookies on your computer that facilitate their own targeting, the Skype opt-out mechanism described above will not necessarily prevent ad targeting by these companies. These companies may offer you a way to opt-out of ad targeting based on their cookies. You may find more information by clicking on the company names above and following the links to the Web sites of each company. Many of them are also members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) or the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), which each provide a simple way to opt-out of ad targeting from participating companies.
5.2 Skype Advertisements
You may also choose to opt-out of the use of your non-personally identifiable profile information in connection with Skype's advertising efforts on third party websites by clicking on the following link: »media.skype.com/optout_c ··· ion.html.
If you choose to opt-out, Skype's advertisements will still be delivered to you but information about your relationship with Skype's websites or the Skype software will not be used for this purpose.
That last bit worries me, but would the browser settings for IE help contain this.........some programs run off IE settings even though the IE page does not open. Would that help by not allowing third party cookies? Interesting, but the 30 to 90 days storage isn't when everything out there is doing it already anyway - unless you really want to have everything "non-recoverable".