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COPPA Steps on ICQ Privacy
An AC writes "According to this CNET news.com article, AOL has started to remove ICQ accounts of anyone whose info states that they are under 13 years old to comply with the new Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
Yahoo is now reportedly asking customers to provide credit card numbers to verify that they older than 13! Now, I am all for protecting kids online, but isn't this a bit over the line?"
It's that simple. The USA, a country founded on the basis of freedom, is becoming a Big Brother type state. I'll bet you that the founding fathers of the USA are spinning in their graves right now.
When the pack animals stampede, it's time to soak the ground with blood to save the world. We fight, we die, we break our cursed bonds.
Chris 'coldacid' Charabaruk Meldstar Entertainment
As long as the ICQ server knows you're online, it's possible.
Clients can lie to the server about their identity through a buffer overrun in the password field, thus they are able to be on the visible list. You'd need to know of someone on the visible list, but you get actual status.
If your IP is known, you can confirm online status by attempting a direct spoof with a wide range of ports. Eventually the spoofer finds an open port ICQ is sitting on and transmits the message if online. I have yet to see a spoofer that reports response stat, so you can only find out if ICQ is running this way. This is the same as using a portscanner and watching for the standard ICQ responses.
Packet sniffers can also be used. The client transmits a keepalive packet to the server. Just set the sniffer to look for packets containing UserX.
.sig: Now legally binding!
I don't know about the USA, but here in the UK the minimum age for holding a credit card is 18. So how is a 14-17 year old going to use a credit card to prove they are over 13?
I sincerely hope they don't try imposing this on non-US citizens - I am damned if I am giving them MY credit card details just to keep ICQ...
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-=DaveHowe=-