AOL Changing IM Terms of Service 229
gpmac writes "AOL has responded to the recent slashdot attention. America Online Inc. plans to make three small but significant modifications to the terms of service for its AIM instant messaging product to head off a firestorm of privacy-related criticisms. The tweaks to the terms of service will be made in the section titled "Content You Post" and will explicitly exclude user-to-user chat sessions from the privacy rights an AIM user gives up to AOL."
From TFA... (Score:5, Informative)
The tweaks to the terms of service will be made in the section titled "Content You Post" and will explicitly exclude user-to-user chat sessions from the privacy rights an AIM user gives up to AOL.
"We're not making any policy changes. We're making some linguistic changes to clarify certain things and explain it a little better to our users," AOL spokesperson Andrew Weinstein told eWEEK.com.
The modifications will use similar language from the AIM privacy policy to "make it clear that AOL does not read private user-to-user communications," Weinstein said.
[...]
More importantly, Weinstein said a blunt and inelegant line that reads "You waive any right to privacy" will be deleted altogether.
"That's a phrase that should not have been in that section in the first place. It clearly caused confusion, with good reason," Weinstein conceded.
[...]
Justin Uberti, chief architect for AIM, also joined the discussion, admitting the controversial section of the terms of service was "vague" and needed to be reworded.
Uberti explained on his Weblog that the amount of IM traffic on the AIM network "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," Uberti wrote.
For AIM users who remain distrustful, Uberti pointed out that the application offers Direct IM (aka Send IM Image) and Secure IM in all recent versions.
"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," Uberti said.
Re:Too little, too late (Score:5, Informative)
Don't you people watch Law and Order? (Score:5, Informative)
And directly from... (Score:5, Informative)
AIM Privacy and Slashdot
OK, I am getting tired of hearing about how "The new AIM TOS allows AOL to have all rights to anything you say on IM, AOL reads/stores all your IMs, etc."
I take this kind of personally, because that is not something I would want to be associated with.
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.
I am saying this as a concerned invidual, and not as a corporate mouthpiece.
Re:very costly (Score:2, Informative)
Re:because of SLASHDOT?!?!? (Score:3, Informative)
~Lake
Non-story, /. takes credit (again) (Score:1, Informative)
Despite bloggers taking (false) credit for "making" AOL change their TOS, the real credit goes to those few AOL/IM subscribers who took the time to read the new TOS and complain.
"Trust me"
Well (Score:2, Informative)
Even though they are on the surface doing something good, it is still setting a bad and dangerous precedent.
Re:No changes, just re-formatting. (Score:4, Informative)
While your propensity for name-calling is no doubt unequaled, your ability to state the facts in this case is not so good.
Every legal analysis I've seen so far from real lawyers (here's one [macslash.org], and here's another [eweek.com].) says that my interpretation of the Terms of Service was correct, and the AOL spokesperson was misleading. So, sorry to inform you that there was, in fact, no misreading. However, I may still be an idiot. The jury's still out. :)