AOL's Steve Case Accused of Being a Peeping Tom
A letter from an Ex-Employee
curls
 >**** Read this information even if you're not on AOL - it will remind you to keep certain things on disc and not your hard drive!  Pass it onto others!
>_______________________________________________________________________________
>Subject: AOL & BIG BROTHER
>
>>
  >> In a message dated 97-10-06 20:52:39 EDT, Binnie7 writes:
>>
>> << 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.
>>
Steve Case of AOL Being Punished for Being a 
Peeping Tom.
Steve Case Being Punished
Illustration: Bernard Montorgueil, from works variously entitled 
The Four Thursdays, Dressage, A Piquante Brunette, 30s 
From "Erotica Universalis", Gilles Neret
©1994 TASCHEN
Available At: Blockbooks.com
 >>  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
>
>
 

--------- End forwarded message ----------

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