Valhalla Legends Archive

General => General Discussion => Topic started by: iago on March 12, 2005, 01:10 AM

Title: No privacy on AIM
Post by: iago on March 12, 2005, 01:10 AM
A friend of mine who goes by Ergot brought this to my attention:

Quote"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.'"

Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, 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. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.

I STRONGLY encourage anybody who doesn't to begin using Gaim (http://gaim.sourceforge.net) with the Gaim-Encryption (http://gaim-encryption.sourceforge.net) plugin!  It works great on all platforms, and will stop AOL, its parent, affiliates, friends, neighbors, relatives, etc. from selling your conversations as a book.


<edit> for more information: http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/03/11/2359226.shtml?tid=120&tid=158&tid=17
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Maddox on March 12, 2005, 03:21 AM
I don't remember you using gaim encryption.
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: dxoigmn on March 12, 2005, 03:29 AM
The encryption only works if the other side has it as well. Unfortunately, many of my friends could care less about this new clause in the TOS and won't bother to use encryption. But that doesn't stop me from using my security certificate issued from my school.
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Blaze on March 12, 2005, 08:41 AM
Last time I downloaded that plugin, it said I had too low of a version of gaim. I updated my gaim, and now it is too high. :P Something doesn't want me to use that plugin..
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: iago on March 12, 2005, 10:33 AM
Quote from: Maddox on March 12, 2005, 03:21 AM
I don't remember you using gaim encryption.

I've had it for a long time.  Since shortly after you told me about it, in fact.
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: EpicOfTimeWasted on March 12, 2005, 11:13 AM
It'd be even better if people would use Jabber, since it was actually designed from the start to be relatively (I say relatively since I don't care to know the inner workings) secure.  Sadly enough, people seem to only care about security once theirs has been compromised.
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Banana fanna fo fanna on March 12, 2005, 11:19 AM
Quote from: EpicOfTimeWasted on March 12, 2005, 11:13 AM
It'd be even better if people would use Jabber, since it was actually designed from the start to be relatively (I say relatively since I don't care to know the inner workings) secure. Sadly enough, people seem to only care about security once theirs has been compromised.

I'll use Jabber when there are major hotties on it...
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: QwertyMonster on March 12, 2005, 11:34 AM
Was my post just deleted? >:(

Im sure i posted on here  >:(

I had
Quote
Privacy on AIM is very lame. What about if u had ub3r private things? :P

If i remember correctly. Or maybe i forgot to press Post.

Well if it was deleted; Why?
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: iago on March 12, 2005, 01:19 PM
QuoteContent You May Use
AOL, its vendors and AIM users who lawfully post content such as information, software, games, communications, photos, video, graphics, music, sound and other materials ("Content") on AIM Products own the property rights to that Content.

So if you send somebody a song that you wrote, AOL can sell it as theirs?

edit: Thanks to Mr. Lenny for pointing that out to me.
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Lenny on March 12, 2005, 01:48 PM
Perfect example right there of what AIM wouldn't do, but iago did.  Which was give credit  ;D

Another interesting part:
QuoteYou agree that you will not take any action to interfere with AOL's or its vendors' ownership of or rights in the Content and you will not attempt to circumvent any mechanisms for preventing the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of the Content.

As iago pointed out in our conv, would this include encryption?
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: iago on March 12, 2005, 01:50 PM
It sounds to me like AOL is going to start doing some major (stealthy) data mining.  I doubt they'll outright steal stuff, but they'll probably start monitoring for keywords and such.  I'd be very paranoid to use AIM unencrypted in the future.
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Blaze on March 12, 2005, 02:00 PM
Hmm Are DC conversations monitored by AIM?
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Lenny on March 12, 2005, 04:35 PM
Well they never go thru aim.  So I would think not.
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Joe[x86] on March 12, 2005, 11:48 PM
Quote from: iago on March 12, 2005, 01:19 PM
QuoteContent You May Use
AOL, its vendors and AIM users who lawfully post content such as information, software, games, communications, photos, video, graphics, music, sound and other materials ("Content") on AIM Products own the property rights to that Content.

So if you send somebody a song that you wrote, AOL can sell it as theirs?

edit: Thanks to Mr. Lenny for pointing that out to me.

If you found a way to do it without a direct connection, sure.
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: shout on March 12, 2005, 11:54 PM
Here is AOL's condensed tos:
Quote from: AOL
W3 PWN J00
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Blaze on March 13, 2005, 01:30 PM
Quote from: Lenny on March 12, 2005, 04:35 PM
Well they never go thru aim. So I would think not.
So then whats the problem? Eveyone just use DC..
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Mangix on March 13, 2005, 04:22 PM
...
what about Secure-IM on trillian?
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: R.a.B.B.i.T on March 13, 2005, 04:42 PM
Trillian sucks.  Also, only other people with Secure-IM can use it.  Someone needs to make a global encryption that works on gAIM, AIM, and Trillian.
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Mangix on March 13, 2005, 07:26 PM
well mr.bunny, why dont you?
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: iago on March 13, 2005, 11:01 PM
If anybody knows how to make a Trillian plugin, it would be neat to modify Gaim-Encryption to work on Trillian.  If you did, you could probably submit them a patch and get your name on the site :)
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Mangix on March 13, 2005, 11:27 PM
this page has info on how to do that.

http://www.trillian.cc/support/sdkmanual.php
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: Soul Taker on March 13, 2005, 11:33 PM
Didn't this new part of the TOS happen in like February of 2004?  Nothing has happened with it so far.

Also: http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/03/14/0138215.shtml?tid=158&tid=120&tid=215&tid=95&tid=17
Title: Re: No privacy on AIM
Post by: iago on March 14, 2005, 08:56 AM
How do you know nothing's happened with it? Depending on how they use it, it's hard to say.  They could be doing massive data-mining.