i heard on the radio aol made a little known change in policy on there IM> it is no longer private but completely in public domain. Anything you send via AOL IM can be read by anyone anytime. It can be used agaist you by you boss to be fired the story goes. Appearntly AOL IM there is no more privacy so watch what you say.

Yep, tis true, tis true.

Move on boys, time to go to a different IM service... ;)

I believe this was found to be inaccurate. I do not have a shred of evidence though.


ByteTheBullet  (-:

Here's a lil sum'n sum'n...

"AOL has posted new terms of service for AIM, that include the right for AOL to use anything and everything you send through AIM in any way they see fit, without informing you. A sample passage: '...by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy.'"

Makes me glad I don't do IM services...


Woody

i'm waiting for them to say there doing it for the children to protect them.

hmm,...can the public access it then?

It isn't new. Anything you've ever written on AOL IM, or ICQ, MSN chat, or any of the other free IM services belongs to the owner of the service. They own it, and can use it as they see fit.

You really, really, really want them to give you a copy of your chat three months ago with the friend who subsequently was killed in a car wreck? "sorry, we don't have that available".

You're under investigation for allegedly violating terms of service in a chat with someone else three months ago? surprise, surprise, they've got every keystroke.

You're under criminal investigation, lo and behold, there are notarized copies of your chats going back for years produced as "exhibits 1 through 12,537"

As I've told people for years, don't consider IM to be a confidential medium, and never ever ever put company, personal, client, or any other sensitive information into a chat unless you are the owner of the chat server or your relationship with the chat server owner is one such that you'd be comfortable handing them notarized transcripts of every chat for their retention and possible use.

Edited to add: don't be paranoid. You're not doing anything wrong, so what's the problem?

In my industry (electricity) most everyone records everything on aol im.  It's a ferc requirement anymore, that all traders be recorded.  This is to prevent traders from colluding on IM to move a market.   This came about after the california fiasco.

BTW,  anyone interested in that, check here

www.enrontapes.com

TXL

Anyone that uses AOL deserves what they get at this point.

How many years have we been telling people that AOL is the devil?

Sgatr15

I use GAIM and set up an SSL tunnel when I want privacy. No worries, and no big deal.

Quoted: I use GAIM and set up an SSL tunnel when I want privacy. No worries, and no big deal.

You wanna translate that from Geek to English for us normal folk?

Quoted: Quoted: I use GAIM and set up an SSL tunnel when I want privacy. No worries, and no big deal. You wanna translate that from Geek to English for us normal folk?

GAIM is alternative client that can talk to AIM, Yahoo messenger, etc. It runs on unix platforms.

It dosn't solve the problem. SSL is a means to encrypt the traffic between your machine and the server, which reduces eavesdropping, but doesn't do anything to keep the AOL server, which is the other end of the circuit, from recording what you've written.

AOLIM has never been encrypted  (other than 3rd party software).
And anything you transmit from your work computer is subject to your employeers internet acceptable use policy.
So yes they can read it.

Appearntly AOL IM there is no more privacy so watch what you say.

It's always been that way,  unless you know for a fact that something is specifically encrypted, you should always watch what you say.  And sometimes you should probably suspect encrypted traffic too.
Welcome to tinfoilhatland!



Edited for badspelling

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I use GAIM and set up an SSL tunnel when I want privacy. No worries, and no big deal. You wanna translate that from Geek to English for us normal folk? GAIM is alternative client that can talk to AIM, Yahoo messenger, etc. It runs on unix platforms. It dosn't solve the problem. SSL is a means to encrypt the traffic between your machine and the server, which reduces eavesdropping, but doesn't do anything to keep the AOL server, which is the other end of the circuit, from recording what you've written.

Um, no. Who said anything about using AOL's servers?

gaim-encryption.sourceforge.net/

There's also a Windows port, btw.