Posted on 10/06/2006 11:34:12 AM PDT by mjp
NEW YORK -- Instant-messaging conversations, though quick, aren't always fleeting.
Rep. Mark Foley's salacious chats with teenage pages emerged along with e-mails last week, as the Florida Republican abruptly resigned. ABC News, which broke the story, has said former pages were the source of the revelations about IMs from 2003.
Click here to find out more! Most likely, the pages who corresponded with Foley either manually saved messages or used IM software with built-in logging capabilities, allowing time-stamped chat sessions to be kept indefinitely on one's computer. The programs vary in whether the features are initially on or off and how well they notify users.
"Computers are really, really good at saving things, unlike a dumb telephone," said Richard M. Smith, an Internet security and privacy consultant at Boston Software Forensics. "If you don't want something to get out, don't put it in any computer form at all."
Chat programs from Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are among those with logging capabilities. Microsoft's installs with the "off" button initially selected, while Yahoo's automatically records chats but clears them when a user signs off (users can choose to turn it off or record forever).
AOL Instant Messenger, the most popular IM service in the United States, doesn't offer logging in its current consumer versions but does in its business-oriented AIM Pro software. AOL's service also can be accessed by Trillian and other third-party software with built-in logging.
Computer-indexing programs such as Google Desktop also have options to retain chats on a personal computer. Some computers also may have keystroke-recording programs secretly installed by a boss or a spouse.
In some cases, the services themselves retain chats.
Google Inc. offers users the ability to store such conversations online, so they can be accessed just like e-mail.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Okay, everyone. Brace yourselves for technical gobblety-gook by the media to try to confuse everyone on how Instant Messaging can be saved and/or stored. This is a smokescreen that will be used by the liberal media to hide the fact that someone broke the law by revealing private communications under existing wiretap laws.
There isn't one of these programs that saves logs in a secure fashion. Meaning, they can easily be edited and changed to say whatever anyone wants. Dates/times can also be changed. This is true of any instant messenger log.
There isn't one of these programs that saves logs in a secure fashion. Meaning, they can easily be edited and changed to say whatever anyone wants. Dates/times can also be changed. This is true of any instant messenger log.
Never write down what you can say.
Never say what you can nod.
Never nod what you can wink.
Never wink what you can smile.
I was pleasantly surprised to find Skype saves it all!
Sweetness and I used to chat over Skype all the time before we got married, and in light of this IM business, I checked: lo and behold it's all there, and I'm glad to have it.
LOL!!
Every single time I commit anything to writing, I imagine it getting into the hands of the one person in the world who has the motivation and means to make my world a living hell.
Even what I post on FR.
You will notice that nothing I ever admit to here is "under oath". ;)
Remember, it's for the children!!
That's funny right there, I don't care who y'are.
The IMs and emails I want to see are the ones between the pages themselves. Everything else is BS.
You should see the one I have with GWB when he was AWOL from the Texas ANG. :D
I don't see how you come to this conclusion. One of the parties of the conversation voluntarily gave up their privacy.
And unless you save them with a different name that "log" it will be over-written in the next session. 3 years ago it took an effort to save this stuff.
Ah, but in some states, the law requires BOTH parties to agree. If you will recall in the Clinton/Lewinski affair, this was the very reason they brought charges against Linda Tripp.
that was a great Seinfled epi when Geo had grapefruit juice in his eye, winked at everything causing Kramer to sell Pop Kastanzas cruising clothes and a guy at the Yankees to get fired ...
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