AOL users waive right to privacy

The Dark Elf

The Dark Elf

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http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/70262/aol-instant-messenger-users-waive-right-to-privacy.html

thats bad, really bad

I don't use AIM, but others might decide to pull the same stunt

for anyone who doesn't want to read it, basically you agree that AOL can use ANYTHING sent across it, words, images, sounds, the lot. Girlfriend sending you a pic of herself? it could be used for anything they want, without permission, without paying you, they don't have to give you any reason or ask you or anything.

Sending a friend some image you've painted.. they could use that too, basically anything on AOL becomes their property

So it'll be interesting to see them claim ownership over something already owned by someone else.. eg the above painting or anything you've written, or audio
 
ComradeBadger said:
Glad I don't use shitty AIM :)
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yeah, but what if MS get the same idea (surprised they haven't yet)

imagine "anything created on windows becomes their property" type Terms, in very small print, and basically unavoidable since so little works without it. Or imagine MSN, all your pics being used on VD poster campaigns and nothing you can do about it. It would suck.
 
A lot of crap that goes into Eula's and such won't stand up in court...well, British courts anyway. For instance you couldn't sign your statutory rights away even if you wanted to, yet some products from MS say that by opening the box you're doing just that.
 
*remembers to stay away from AIM*
There must be some plus points to this right? Used as proof for illegal dealings online or something?
 
Farrowlesparrow said:
A lot of crap that goes into Eula's and such won't stand up in court...well, British courts anyway. For instance you couldn't sign your statutory rights away even if you wanted to, yet some products from MS say that by opening the box you're doing just that.
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yeah but think of the little person. not the company, you could write something and without realising send it to a friend to see what they think, AOL decide its theirs and what can you do, the little person vs the company, they've got all the lawyers n money, would be hard to prove its not their own, and even then, you agreed to them doing that. So it would make things really messy.

and what happens when someone sends something of yours across AOL, where do they stand then, by claiming its yours in that sense, they are effectively breaking all kinds of laws, including outright theft eg: pirated games n things.
 
StardogChampion said:
Like the guy said, they don't read personal messages, so who cares?
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The guy says that, not the terms and conditions that you agree to. If they made it perfectly clear, it wouldn't be a problem, but they don't, and nothing he says is gonna stand up beyond what it is, just words.
 
*waits for google to take over the world* G-messenger will probably come out some day...and possibly a google operating system ha~ :o
 
I used to use AIM a lot, but now only a couple people I know use it.. shame I'm on AOL still ;(
 
Surely there have to be laws against this kind of madness?
 
Generally when you send images over aim you use direct connections which is a direct link from you to the other person, so they're never even sent to the AOL server.

And if you're really paranoid about them reading your convos, you can just stay directly conected to whomever you're talking to and the messages will never be sent to the server for them to read
 
el Chi said:
Surely there have to be laws against this kind of madness?
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I don't think so...if there was I don't think AOL would have done that.

Now if there is laws against it they probally went through some loop hole to do it.
 
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/14/0138215&tid=158&tid=120&tid=215&tid=95&tid=17
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/tech/blog/3082956
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3084164

First off, that blurb in the TOS only refers to AIM forum posts, not IMs. I agree that it is vague and should be reworded to be clear.

Second, the amount of IM traffic is on the order of hundreds of gigabytes a day. It would be very costly, and we have no desire to record all IM traffic. We don't do it.

Thirdly, if you still don't trust us, we have Direct IM (aka Send IM Image) and Secure IM in all recent versions of the AIM software. In other words, you can send your IMs in such a way that they never go through our servers, and/or are encrypted with industry-standard SSL and S/MIME technology. I know this since I designed these features. There are no backdoors; I would not have permitted any.
Click to expand...

edit: I should read threads first.
 
Tr0n said:
I don't think so...if there was I don't think AOL would have done that.

Now if there is laws against it they probally went through some loop hole to do it.
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It's probably illegal in other countries, but if it's legal in America then the world can't do anything, in terms of the internet.

Like with junk mail, it's illegal here, but since it originated in America, it didn't make a difference.
 
kirovman said:
It's probably illegal in other countries, but if it's legal in America then the world can't do anything, in terms of the internet.

Like with junk mail, it's illegal here, but since it originated in America, it didn't make a difference.
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Sod it, I'm taking back America for the Empire. That'll teach those Puritan upstarts a thing or two. "No more spam!" cries the beautiful army of the Albion as we sail forth into glory.


Sorry. I'm very tired.
 
What can you expect from such a corporation?... might just be me being really tired, but surely you could use it as your defence in some libal case... or worse. Say AIM owns the messages, so sue them :p
 
People who use AOL should'nt be allowed the same rights as other humans.

:P
 
Haha good thing I haven't been using it anymore! (damn you World of Warcraft! /angry)
 
el Chi said:
Sod it, I'm taking back America for the Empire. That'll teach those Puritan upstarts a thing or two. "No more spam!" cries the beautiful army of the Albion as we sail forth into glory.


Sorry. I'm very tired.
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hehehe, worth a chuckle or two el Chi.

I honestly believe that things will eventually get worse than this on the wider internet.

Read Otherland by Tad williams, then you'll know what I'm talking about.

The internet will be just as regulated as free-to-air TV. :(
 
Hazar said:
hahahaha, erestheux, I told you!!!!
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My friend told me about that. MSN is still shit, it's not like I really am afraid that AIM is gonna steal any artwork I've made or nekkid pictures of mah sexah bodie, since there are like, a bazillion other people to choose from with sexy bodies and better talent :P

Don't expect this to stay just-for-AIM, either, yo.
 
AIM was always crap.. this confirms it..


In soviet russia, AIM reads YOU!!
 
Erestheux said:
My friend told me about that. MSN is still shit, it's not like I really am afraid that AIM is gonna steal any artwork I've made or nekkid pictures of mah sexah bodie, since there are like, a bazillion other people to choose from with sexy bodies and better talent :P

Don't expect this to stay just-for-AIM, either, yo.
Click to expand...

but aol is still a bastard for doing it first :p
 
AIM is the easiest to use, and no one around where I live uses anything but AIM, so that's why I use it. But I use Trillian, too. :P

Still, its a pretty friggin dirty ass thing to do...
 
you're partially forgiven for using trillian

but I want aol to go to the trash, and aim is the only thing keeping them alive
 
Pfft, its not like I click on their shitty ads, and I used to use hacks to get rid of the damn things. If anything, its costing them money to let me talk every day. :P
 
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