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1. 

   gh, 27 Feb 2006 @ 9:35pm

   
   

   No Subject Given

   Does this mean that Yahoo! records your conversations so they can review them?
   
   How did they find this information out? Do they only go through all their own employees logs? Were the logs from their laptops, or from Yahoo's servers?
   
   Are the employees told their logs will be read in clear terms? Or is it really the that we should all expect someone is reviewing everything that we say?
   
   I know it feels that way, but if it truly is that way, its a big leap.
   
   I know about Echelon, but this is a private company, and not email which obviously does reside on their servers. IM is supposed to be person to person without intermediaries.

   [ link to this | view in thread ]

2. 

   Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2006 @ 9:41pm

   
   

   Re: No Subject Given

   From the article -- "Drawing heavily from archived instant-messaging conversations ..."
   
   It doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that Yahoo archives IM conversations. It would be a worthwhle research article for someone to review the privacy policies of each of the major IM services.

   [ link to this | view in thread ]

3. 

   Anonymous Coward, 27 Feb 2006 @ 9:42pm

   
   

   Re: No Subject Given

   Many companies keep records of all messages forever or close to it. I've seen many court cases where im's are retrieved 5 years after they were sent. Or in this case SMS.

   [ link to this | view in thread ]

4. 

   voice of warning, 27 Feb 2006 @ 9:51pm

   
   

   Re: No Subject Given

   I am amazed at how amny people still believe that anything they communicate on the internet, short of being uber encrypted, is private.
   
   email isn't private, IM isn't private, in each, since there is an itermediary, everyone should expect that anything they say can and will be read by someone other than they intended. Not only that, nothing prevents people from publishing those communications, including IM logs. (Not to mention the IM filter applications and boxes that log all IM activity on a corporate network)
   
   You have been warned, now carry on, I have some emails to read - Ted over in accounting is having a fight with his soon to be ex-girlfriend....

   [ link to this | view in thread ]

5. 

   Kolya, 27 Feb 2006 @ 10:06pm

   
   

   There's a distinction to be made . .

   . . .between using IM at work on work provided machines and using IM "privately" meaning on your own time and on your own machine.
   Anyone working at any decent sized company should assume that all communications of any kind belong to that company and are subject to interception/retrieval. Those folks who were leaving were naive or dumb not to assume this.

   [ link to this | view in thread ]

6. 

   me, 27 Feb 2006 @ 10:08pm

   
   

   Re: No Subject Given

   Yahoo IM has a built-in archive setting under the Messenger/preferences/Archive menu. When you turn this on, your messages are saved to disk by recipient.
   
   It's not surprising Yahoo would check this info if the laptops were company-pwned (whoops, little l33t h@x0R slipped in there). NEVER assume anything you do on a company laptop is private, esp. if you and a bunch of your friends are about to jump ship for the same company.
   

   [ link to this | view in thread ]

7. 

   TJ, 27 Feb 2006 @ 11:30pm

   
   

   Re: No Subject Given

   Companies like IM-Logic and others having IM Capture soft/hard-ware. In our company we know that all IM traffic is been captured (Y!,MSN,AOL, others) and archived for legal reasons. You should never assume that no one is listening into you conversation. Privacy is long gone.

   [ link to this | view in thread ]

8. 

   Jerry F, 27 Feb 2006 @ 11:36pm

   
   

   No Subject Given

   I've always assumed that Yahoo IM is stored somewhere on a hard drive over at Yahoo.
   Something you might want to consider is an IM encryption program. I use SimpLite, http://www.secway.com.
   

   [ link to this | view in thread ]

9. 

   Bigfatdummy, 28 Feb 2006 @ 2:48am

   
   

   No Subject Given

   Most company handbooks/policies now state that all communication is the property of the company and not the individual users. We (at my company) recently had to let an accountant go. The accountant emailed sensitive material (bank account information, tax id, etc) to his/her personal email account. Lucky for us our IT guy caught it and reported it to us. Logs can be a wonderful thing.

   [ link to this | view in thread ]

10. 

    Nathan Mallamace, 28 Feb 2006 @ 3:23am

    
    

    Re: No Subject Given

    In regards to your statement "Privacy is long gone" you're wrong. It was never there to start. In fact if you're a company like Y!, MSN, AOL, you better CYA because there are a lot of fools out there that are willing to use your service for illegal reasons.
    

    Furthermore, who's going to watch out for the terrorists?

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

11. 

    Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2006 @ 3:43am

    
    

    Re: No Subject Given

    Furthermore: who will watch the watchers?

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

12. 

    PaulM, 28 Feb 2006 @ 6:46am

    
    

    use OTR or similar

    There are SSL options for IM clients, but that only stops a network snooper from collecting your messages, it still means you have to trust the IM server.
    
    So, use "Off The Record" (OTR) - there's a plugin for gaim - which means that you don't have to trust the IM server.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

13. 

    Jeff, 28 Feb 2006 @ 12:18pm

    
    

    Re: No Subject Given

    It's possible that those "archives" were on their laptops. I keep copies of all of my IM conversations.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]