X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f996b,544249e9d7f3c363,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public From: Smiley Subject: Aol 4.0 - This is not spam! Date: 1997/10/29 Message-ID: <6tmTCEAkEzV0Iwsb@demon.co.uk> X-Deja-AN: 285854516 Distribution: world X-NNTP-Posting-Host: mallac.demon.co.uk [158.152.159.196] Organization: Smileysoft Reply-To: Smiley Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art I'm not sure of it's authenticity but I have seen this message around, and felt that it was important that people new about it: > > >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, code named 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 href="aol://4344:1047.g334.8411481.532897009"here > 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 undoubtedly 'Top Secret' information that 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 attempted 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 > receive 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 To keep to the theme: ___ ____ __ / _ \ / \ | | / /_\ \ / /\ \ | | / ___ \ \ \/ / | |__ / / \ \ \____/ |_____| S U C K S Bye! S m i l e y @ d e m o n . c o . u k R e m o v e "NOSPAM" t o r e p l y ******* ***** ***** **** **** *** *** *** ## ## ## ## *** ** ## ## ## ## ** * # # * * ## ## ## ## * * ## ## ## ## * * * * ############# ############ * * ### #### * * #### #### ## * * ## ## # ## * ** ########## # # ** *** ## ###*** *** ####*** **** **** ***** ***** ******* Smiley 8P www.mallac.demon.co.uk/index.html - I found it hard, It was hard to find Oh well, whatever nevermind -