Establishing who can call or chat with you

Privacy options let you allow or deny calls and chats. You can also put some callers in the virtual doghouse by blocking contact altogether. Be aware that privacy is something you must choose. Skype’s default setting allows anyone to initiate a call or chat with you. Skype calls this process “Authorization,” meaning that when someone requests your Contact Details, you have authorized him or her to know both your full Skype identity particulars (except your email address) and your online status in real time. Authorization is usually what you want to choose in order to keep connected to your new circle of friends. This setting is probably not your first choice, however, when it comes to the world at large.

The Skype community is large and growing daily. This means that possibly thousands of people, organizations, or interest groups might want to contact you — or you them. Although this is a welcome opportunity, you need to be aware that you may be sharing a bit more than “hello” when you share contact details or accept a call or chat.
When a person contacts you for the first time, a Skype window pops up on your screen . You might be tempted to hastily click OK so that you can get back to what you were doing. Wait! Before you prematurely send all your information, you can click the Show Options button and look over your other choices, as follows:

• Send Your Contact Details with This Person: Choosing this option allows the person to freely communicate with you whenever he or she wants.
• Do Not Send Your Contact Details with This Person: Choosing this option ignores the person’s request. That person can’t tell whether you simply didn’t respond or actually declined his or her request.
• Block This Person from Contacting You in the Future: This option means that you will always appear as Offline anytime that person views you in his or her Contacts list.

By deselecting the Add This Person to My Contacts option, you can share your contact details with a person without adding that person to your own list of Skype contacts.
Even if you set your privacy settings so that only authorized people can contact you or see when you are online, you can still receive “Hello from” requests from new visitors.