From: Nsp97@aol.com
Subject: IUFO: The New AOL 4.0: Invasion of Privacy?
Date: 17 Oct 1997 09:01:45 -0400
To: iufo@world.std.com


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--PART.BOUNDARY.0.16951.emout15.mail.aol.com.877089187
Content-ID: <0_16951_877089187@emout15.mail.aol.com.1881>
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__________________________________
 
 >From a former AOL employee:
 >
 > I used to work for America Online, and would like to 
 >remain anonymous. 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) of your files including your password and log in 
 >information and store it deep in the program code. Well in the past 
 >AOL's other version 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 are unemployed because of 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 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
 >(Tell important people in your area, congressman, Private Investigators,
 
 >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 !!!
 >
 >

--PART.BOUNDARY.0.16951.emout15.mail.aol.com.877089187
Content-ID: <0_16951_877089187@emout15.mail.aol.com.1882>
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    SECURITY ALERT!
  
  



  Think your data and privacy are secure?  =
;Think
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  Getting info from the user


Push the button and the Cookie Man will show your config.sys. This exampl=
e
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New! Push the button and the Cookie Man will let you access any fi=
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in all your disk drives.

  


  











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