No Privacy on AIM
This ranks really high on the news I didn’t want to hear list. As revealed here, AOL has changed the Terms of Service on their AOL Instant Messenger or AIM service. Here is the worst of it…
…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.
Well, I am left speechless by this development. Which is probably a good thing since AOL can’t take my words, twist, then republish them if I spoke to you about this on AIM. The really big problem with this is that 98% of the people that I know and communicate with are AIM users only. Not to mention the majority of them will not know about this or will not care enough to bother to switch to a different network. Its not a small change to make either but if there ever was a good reason to leave AIM, this is definitely it.
Please, all of you who would like to maintain private conversations with me, you can IM me on the Yahoo Messenger service at the same name as my AIM screen name.