AOL Using Netscape to Spy?

Keepiru writes "AOL is the target of a class action lawsuit that accuses it of violating federal privacy laws." Basically it says that the SmartDownload feature in communicator is dumping back user download information to big brother, and this violates the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Comments

Where the heck did this story come from?

[molo]

Where the heck did this story come from?
I found it on my "Older Stuff" slashbox on my main page with 0 comments listed. Whats the deal? Bug in slashcode?

I never saw it posted to begin with.

The Glories of Legitimate News

[gunner800]

First, my obligatory "WTF, why is this just in 'Older Stuff'?"

This story (on Yahoo! news for those who don't want to read it) gives absolutely no technical details. I have no way to verify to my own satisfaction whether the claims are accurate. I don't even have a starting point from which to determine if I, too, have been violated.

If some "underground hacker site" had reported this, it would be loaded with information that is actually useful.

Damned hackers, always educating the public...


My mom is not a Karma whore!

Wasn't happy about it.

[AtariDatacenter]

The moment I tried the "What's Related" button, I was a little miffed. (It was among the buttons I never use like "netscape" and "search" cluttering my browser pane.) They're getting the URLs I visit to see "what's related"? Now just what are the chances of them recording it for other purposes?

If you're worried about web bugs or cookies, here's a big one that people should be turning OFF.

The Privacy Market

[TheNightOwl]

There is a large market niche of folks who value security and privacy in their browser. Ultimately this niche will be filled by someone, but the question is who? Microsoft appears to have only limited appeal to this market segment, and if the charges made here are correct, AOL/Netscape also seems to be squandering their opportunity.

A commitment to target this niche must come from the top levels of an organization. The corporate leaders must make it very clear that backdoors, bugs, data capture etc. are not permitted in their software. Without this leadership from the top, there is too much temptation (in the middle) to participate in this type of shenanigans.

The folks at AOL/Netscape have a great opportunity to differentiate themselves in how they handle privacy issues. From a PR standpoint, it seems like a no-brainer for AOL/Netscape management to proclaim that this type of backdoor is unacceptable, and that they will immediately investigate and close it. If it turns out that the alleged backdoor exists, and AOL/Netscape does not immediately and proactively work to correct it, their credibility in this market will be irreparably damaged.

Slashdot Develop Time Travel

[Dhericean]

I just find it very interesting that according to the date/time stamp on this article (which is what has caused it to appear in the old news section) it actually predates the Yahoo article by some 17 hours.

I'm presuming that when posting it CmdrTaco tried to give it the same date/time as the Yahoo article. However he translated 01:16 PM EDT into 01:16 UDT (24 hour clock). The correct value would have been 18:16 UDT (+12 +5). There is however the question of why do this at all and not just use the actual posting time (any conspiracy nuts out there?).

Of course I could be wrong and the title of this article could be accurate. Maybe Yahoo failed to credit the Slashdot article (Chronal Recursion - the bane of all time travelling civilisations).