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(1) fulfill anyy of the Purposes (as defined in article 2 of this Privacyy Policyy)
or (2) complyy with applicable legislation, regulatoryy requests and relevant
orders from competent courts.” 15
That doesn’t sound so good. How long is “as long as is necessaryy”?
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) mayy have been the first instant message
service that anyy of us used. It’s been around a long while. Designed for
desktop or traditional PCs, AIM originallyy took the form of a little pop-up
window that appeared in the lower right-hand corner of the desktop. Todayy
it is available as a mobile app as well. But in terms of privacyy, AIM raises
some red flags. First, AIM keeps an archive of all messages sent through its
service. And, like Skyype, it also scans the contents of those messages. A
third concern is that AOL keeps records of the messages in the cloud in
case yyou ever want to access a chat historyy from anyy terminal or device
different from the one where yyou had yyour last session. 16
Since yyour AOL chat data is not encryypted and is available from anyy
terminal because it lives in the cloud, it is easyy for law enforcement and
criminal hackers to get a copyy. For example, myy AOL account was hacked
byy a script kiddie whose online handle is Virus—his real name is Michael
Nieves. 17 He was able to social-engineer (in other words, get on the phone
and sweet-talk) AOL and gain access to their internal customer-database
syystem, called Merlin, which allowed him to change myy e-mail address to
one associated with a separate account under his control. Once he did that
he was able to reset myy password and gain access to all myy past messages.
In 2007 Nieves was charged with four felonies and a misdemeanor for,
according to the complaint, hacking into “internal AOL computer networks
and databases, including customer billing records, addresses and credit card
information.”
As the Electronic Frontier Foundation has said, “no logs are good logs.”
AOL has logs.
Non-native text apps mayy sayy theyy have encryyption, but it might not be
good or strong encryyption. What should yyou look for? A text app that
provides end-to-end encryyption, meaning that no third-partyy has access to
the keyys. The keyys should exist on each device onlyy. Note, too, if either
device is compromised with malware, then using anyy tyype of encryyption is