AOL answers ‘monitoring’ charge
p2pnet.net News:- Yesterday, AOL emailed us asking us to ‘correct’ a story in which we’d said, “You no longer have any right to privacy if you use America Online’s AIM software downloaded on or after February 5 last year.”
There wasn’t anything to correct, but we posted it anyway because we found it interesting, and it also gave us another opportunity to highlight privacy worries.
In a second story, we said BlackBerry had struck a deal with AOL. It went, “AOL, which has literally turned your privacy into a marketable commodity, says Research In Motion (RIM has joined its Mobile Developer Program (MDP) “in order to support the popular mobile AOL Instant Messenger services on the BlackBerrywireless platform”.
Our email from AOL was signed by Andrew Weinstein and led with, ““The rumors flying around the Blogosphere” that AOL’s AIM Terms of have been weakened are completely "false".
The first paragraph said, “First and foremost, AOL does not monitor, read or review any user-to-user communication through the AIM network, except in response to a valid legal process.”
Neither of our stories mentioned monitoring, but since the subject has come up, “America Online said late Monday that it plans to revise its user agreement in response to concerns that instant messages sent through the company’s service could be monitored,” says CNET News.
“The new policy for AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM, will stress that the company does not eavesdrop on customer’s conversations except in unusual circumstances such as a court order, an AOL spokesman said.”
It doesn’t, however, "clarify" anything about concerns centering on the privacy of people who use AOL’s AIM and by, “posting Content on an AIM Product," you still, "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."
And, "“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.”
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
============
See:-
right to privacy – AOL kills AIM privacy, p2pnet, March 14, 2005
second story - Blackberry hoists AOL AIM flag, p2pnet, March 14, 2005
rumors flying around – Dear p2pnet: from AOL, p2pnet, March 14, 2005
CNET News – AOL clarifies IM privacy guarantee, CNET News, March 14, 2005
