>From: Raymond Biagan[SMTP:rbiagan@aromat.com]
>Sent: Thursday, October 23, 1997 1:42 PM
>To: GLENNNMALOU@AOL.COM; laniek@MICROSOFT.com; Luckee007@AOL.COM;
>MD6@pipermar.com; MVeroy@AOL.COM; ciscokidd@juno.com;
>mazinger_z@rocketmail.com; gqjr@webtv.net; Ken_Wright@email.msn.com
>Subject: A Must Read for AOL-users = BEWARE!!!!!
>
>>>
>>>From a former AOL employee:
>>>I'll try to get to the point of this
>>>letter. I used to work for America Online, and would like to remain
>>>anonymous for that reason. I was laid off in early September, but I
>>>know exactly why I was laid off, which I will now explain:
>>>Since last December, I had been one of the many people assigned to
>>>design AOL 4.0 for Windows (AOL 4.0 beta, codenamed Casablanca). In
>>>the beginning, I was very proud of this task, until I found out the true
>>>cost of it. Things were going fine until about mid-February, when me
>>>and 2 of my colleagues started to suspect a problem, an unexplainable
>>>'Privacy Invasion', with the new version. One of them, who is a master
>>>programmer, copied the finished portion of the new version (Then 'Build
>>>52'), and took it home, and we spent nearly 2 weeks of sleepless nights
>>>examining and debugging the program, flipping it inside-out, and here is
>>>what we found.
>>>Unlike all previous versions of America Online, version 4.0 puts
>>>something in your hard drive called a 'cookie'. (AOL members click <A
>>>HREF="a
>>>ol://4344:1047.g334.8411481.532897009">here</A> for a
>>>definition). However, the cookie we found on Version 4.0 was far more
>>>treacherous than the simple internet cookie. How would you like
>>>somebody looking at your entire hard drive, snooping through any (yes,
>>>any) piece of information on your hard drive. It could also read your
>>>password and log in information and store it deep in the program code.
>>>Well, all previous versions, whether you like it or not, have done this
>>>to a certain extent, but only with files you downloaded. As me and my
>>>colleagues discovered, with the new version, anytime you are signed on
>>>to AOL, any top aol executive, any aol worker, who has been sworn to
>>>secrecy regarding this feature, can go into your hard drive and retrieve
>>>any piece of information that they so desire. Billing, download
>>>records, e-mail, directories, personal documents, programs, financial
>>>information, scanned images, etc ... Better start keeping all those
>>>pictures on a floppy disk!
>>>This is a totally disgusting violation of our rights, and your right to
>>>know as well. Since this is undoubtably 'Top Secret' information that I
>>>am revealing, my life at AOL is pretty much over. After discovering
>>>this information, we started to inform a few other workers at America
>>>Online, so that we could get a large enough crew to stop this from
>>>happening to the millions of unfortunate and unsuspecting America Online
>>>members. This was in early August. One month later, all three of us
>>>were unemployed. We got together, and figured there was something we
>>>had to do to let the public know.
>>>Unemployed, with one of us going through a divorce (me) and another who
>>>is about to undergo treatment for Cancer, our combined financial
>>>situation is not currently enough to release any sort or article. We
>>>attepted to create a web page on three different servers containing
>>>in-depth information on AOL 4.0, but all three were taken down within 2
>>>days. We were running very low on time (4.0 is released early this
>>>winter), so we figured our last hope to reveal this madness before it
>>>effects the people was starting something similar to a chain letter,
>>>this letter you are reading. Please do the following, to help us expose
>>>AOL for who they really are, and to help us and yourself recieve
>>>personal gratification for taking a stand for our freedom:
>>>1. Forward this letter to as many people as you can (not just friends
>>>and family, as many as you can!)
>>>2. Tell people who aren't on America Online in person, especially
>>>important people (Private Investigators, Government workers, City
>>>Council)
>>>3. If the information about the new version isn't exposed by the time
>>>aol is released early this winter, for your own protection, DON'T
>>>DOWNLOAD AOL 4.0 UNDER ANY CONDITION !!!
>>>Thank you for reading and examining this information. Me and my
>>>colleagues hope that you will help us do the right thing in this
>>>situation. Enjoy America Online (just kidding!).
>
>
>Raymond Biagan
>Field Applications Engineer
>Aromat Corporation - San Jose (408)433-0466
>www.aromat.com
>
> |
