Comments on: All Your AIM Chats are Belong to Us - AOL New AIM Terms of Service Waives All Privacy, AOL Can Publish Your Chats

By: Jillian

Jillian — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 23:28:45 +0000

Can you tell me how to view my boyfriend’s aol im conversations without going on his computer? He’s lied to me before, I need to know if he’s telling the truth. Please help me do this. Thanks!
Highly appreciated,
~Jillian

By: Leo Notenboom

Leo Notenboom — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 16:42:26 +0000

Nope. This article says that in a little more detail: http://ask-leo.com/can_i_retrieve_old_aol_instant_messenger_conversations.html

By: Christina

Christina — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 05:01:03 +0000

if there is any way to retrieve old AOL conversations that were not saved- someone PLEASE let me know. i’m going crazy. and i know there just has to be a way. please email me.

By: codeman38

codeman38 — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 01:22:20 +0000

They’ve updated the terms of service today, incidentally, removing the bit about waiving all privacy and clarifying which types of posts are subject to the provisions specified. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1776146,00.asp

By: Kelson

Kelson — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 18:48:59 +0000

Michael: I think Aunty can hardly be blamed for not reading the Snopes article before posting, given that it looks like her article was published first. It was certainly published before AOL made the “clarifying” statement that Snopes cites.

By: codeman38

codeman38 — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 15:36:24 +0000

Also, this doesn’t appear to apply to screen name registrations made through Netscape’s site (My Netscape, Webmail, etc.). As if things weren’t confusing enough already!

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 14:46:25 +0000

This is in the Privacy Statement of the AIM agreement, if all four corners of the document were looked into, they would see this too.

“AOL does not read your private online communications when you use any
of the communication tools offered as AIM Products. If, however, you
use these tools to disclose information about yourself publicly (for
example, in chat rooms or online message boards made available by
AIM), other online users may obtain access to any information you
provide.”

By: Aunty Spam

Aunty Spam — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 11:05:48 +0000

Michael Baldelli wrote: “Please read this before publishing this sort of thing to the Internet and scarying the bejesus out of people: http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/aim.asp”

Dear Mr. Baldelli - the present wording of the actual terms of service, as cited in Aunty’s article, are the legal terms. In the event of a lawsuit, the court would look to the language within the four corners of the document - the words of an AOL spokesperson would have almost no bearing whatsoever in a court of law. AOL has indicated that they will be replacing the present TOS, which they admit is “inartfully worded”, shortly. In the meantime, Aunty’s legal analysis stands, however if you choose you are certainly welcome to put the matter to the test. Please be sure to report back to the class.

Kissy kissy,

Aunty Spam

By: Michael Andrew Baldelli

Michael Andrew Baldelli — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 10:58:32 +0000

Please read this before publishing this sort of thing to the Internet and scarying the bejesus out of people:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/aim.asp

By: PeteB

PeteB — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:55:47 +0000

I don’t think they can publish conversations that took place under their old TOS *unless* you accept the new TOS at which point they can pretty much do what they like. Accepting the new TOS could be implied simply by continuing to use AIM. It would be a very interesting court case…