Now before you start rolling your eyes, you might wish to read on first. Apparently one man actually took the time to read the TOS for the AIM messenger. It seems that what he discovered upset him enough to really make a stink over it. Speaking personally, I don’t use IM anymore. It is a privacy joke and a security risk waiting to jump out at you. Why even fool with it?

You might think news about AOL changing the Terms of Service for AIM products would be about AOL changing the Terms of Service for AIM products. Not even close. It all started with this guy, who asserted the Terms of Service (TOS) change allowed AOL to use AIM conversations for. . .whatever purposes deemed fit by AOL. Naturally, Ben Stanfield was outraged.

Millions of people use AIM as a tool to share incredibly personal stories and don’t assume that their personal conversations will show up in AOL’s marketing materials or other places, especially without their consent. AOL has created a basic expectation of privacy, while secretly sticking in their legal documents that there isn’t any.

Do people really do that? I mean the part about corporations creating an expectation of privacy, not exchanging messy intimacies using text messaging. At any rate, AOL immediately responded that the allegation of being “pwned by AOL” is totally false.