wow that’s crazy, I can’t believe they would literally say they will invade our privacy rights. Have they gone nuts?? well I guess it’s time to trash the old aol messenger and move on..

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Crazy?  I don’t think so.  AOL has had the ability to do this for forever.  What privacy “rights” do you think you have?  Believe me, you have no more rights using AIM then employees of a company have any legal privacy on company equipment.  I don’t think it is at all “nuts.”  It is actually good of them to update their privacy policy so that users can know for sure what the deal is.

Just about everyone hates AOL, including me, but they have offered AIM for free for a long time now.  I’m not saying I love their privacy policy, but I mean what do you expect from a free service?  If the privacy policy scares you so much, don’t use AIM.

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why would they add that though?

you think the FBI wanted some drugees AIM convos?

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feel free to watch a bunch of 12 yr olds convos…

User 1: OMFG, AOL is teh suX0r—I h8 teh knew policy WTF?

User 2: ya, LOL

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Just wanted to correct the record to make clear that the rumors flying around the blogosphere about the AIM Terms of Service are totally false.

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.  The AIM privacy policy (which is part of the AIM TOS) should make that crystal clear:
“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.”
The second sentence of that same paragraph—and the related section of the AIM Terms of Service—is apparently causing the confusion.  The related section of the Terms of Service is called “Content You Post” and, as such, logically and legally it relates only to content a user posts in a public area of the service.
If a user posts content in a public area of the service, like a chat room, message board, or other public forum, that information may be used by AOL for other purposes.  One example of this might be a user who posts a “Rate a Buddy” photo and thus allows AIM to post it for other AIM users to vote on it.  Another might be AOL taking an excerpt from a message board posting on a current news issue and highlighting it in a different area of the service.
Such language is standard in almost all similar user agreements, including those from Microsoft and most online news publications (MSN and Houston Chronicle TOS excerpted below).  That clause simply lets the user know that content they post in a public area can be seen by other users and can be used by the owner of the site for other purposes.
Finally, there seems to be a misimpression that the change was recently made.  In fact, the current AIM Terms of Service was last updated in February 2004 and has been in place for more than a year.  The prior terms of service had very similar language reserving the same rights.
In short, AIM user-to-user communication has been and will remain private, the AIM TOS was not changed, and the TOS includes a standard clause on publicly posted material. 
Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks.
—Andrew
Andrew Weinstein
Spokesman, America Online

MSN TOS:
6. MATERIALS YOU POST OR PROVIDE; COMMUNICATIONS MONITORING

For materials you post or otherwise provide to Microsoft related to the MSN Web Sites (a “Submission”), you grant Microsoft permission to (1) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat your Submission, each in connection with the MSN Web Sites, and (2) sublicense these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. Microsoft will not pay you for your Submission. Microsoft may remove your Submission at any time. For each Submission, you represent that you have all rights necessary for you to make the grants in this section.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE TOS:

3.4 Your Submission of Messages. You hereby grant to The Chronicle a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display and use for any purpose all messages posted by You on the Service or any e-mail sent by You to The Chronicle (in whole or in part) and to incorporate any such messages or e-mails in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

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Not like it matters for Trillian users who use client-side encryption! Though that only works when chatting with OTHER Trillian users over AIM.

http://www.trillian.cc - get the SUPERIOR AIM client!

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hm thats interesting
ah well privacy’s overrated :S

hah jk
of course you shouldn’t post confidential stuff in any chat proggy regardless..

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