AOL version 4.0 puts "cookie" in members' hard drives.
The following page
stockhouse.com
has a letter from an ex-AOL employee who says that AOL version 4.0 puts a "cookie" in subscribers' hard drives. This cookie allows AOL employees to access any information in the hard drive.
I am reproducing the letter below:
Subject: AOL Privacy Invasion
LeRoy,
Following is not my opinion, rather just forwarded email. Draw your own conclusions about the
implications and authencity.
Robert R. | The democracy will cease to exist
| when you take away from those who
| are willing to work and give to those
| who would not. - Thomas Jefferson
(Note from an AOL member: I don't think that this could wait....If this is true....They have went way
out of bounds. Patti)
>From a former AOL employee:
I'll try and cut through the crap, and 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 here 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!).
Regards,
A former AOL employee |
