“As pointed out recently by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a new logging feature introduced into AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) raises many privacy concerns,” David Morgenstern reports for ZDNet. “However, Mac users may not be aware that iChat uses the AIM service.”
“The Mac Security Blog warns that AIM will log chats up to two months, but who knows, it could be longer,” Morgenstern reports. “Alarming. Perhaps it’s time for Apple to switch to another service provider? Or get into the messaging business?”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Now would be a great time to get rid of iChat and give is iMessage for mac! 🙂
How can you not know you’re using AIM. You have to create an AIM account and give iChat the username and password.
My iChat account came from mac.com. I got a trial for the service way back when, and kept the @mac.com email address. If your account is @aol.com, that would be a red alert to people, but maybe not if it was @mac.com.
I’ve been using iChat since day one with my mac.com email addy. There is no indication anywhere except the initial setup screen that it’s based on AOL.
@dinjin201, exactly. iChat was built for the desktop age. FaceTime and iMessage (and Siri) are all products of this post-PC era, but eventually they’ll all make their way. Ack to the Mac.
I have moved from iChat video to FaceTime when available. does anyone know if FaceTime is working on mac computers yet?
oh my yes, Facetime has been working on Macs for quite some time now.
FaceTime works on macs, and also between a mac and an iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch. I find the video quality better than iChat. What FaceTime doesn’t do is multiperson chats – iChat can link up to four participants whereas FaceTime is just one-to-one. Also, FaceTime doesn’t support instant messaging, which iChat does.
Facetime is in the app store.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facetime/
Bah. Bad link. But YKWIM.
Try this Link to Download Facetime.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facetime/id414307850?mt=12
What is the purpose of logging the chats?
If you don’t pay for a product or service, then you *are* the product or service…
My only complaint with FaceTime on the Mac is when I try to call from my iPhone or iPad to our iMac, you have to be sitting at the Mac to hear the ring, wish you could control so it has the volume of a phone ring
Ah, turn up the volume? Call me drunk (you’d be correct) but I have on occasion forgot to turn the volume down after god knows what and I get a “FaceTime call”.
After a shower and dry clothes, I return the call.