Instant Messages, Lingering Paper Trail

People who think their instant messages disappear after being sent should think again.

As the recent scandals involving former Republican congressman Mark Foley and Hewlett-Packard Co. have brought to light, text messages sent in real time via computer can be saved and retrieved.

Instant messaging has been growing in popularity, with nearly 79 million users of instant-messaging programs in the United States during August, according to research firm Nielsen-NetRatings. The most popular instant-message programs are from AOL, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. and can be used on computers and mobile gadgets such as cellphones and BlackBerrys.

Many people who take advantage of these free software services believe their conversations can't be tracked, but that's a misconception, said Michael Hall, managing editor of the Web site Instant Messaging Planet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501594.html

whose job, as near as I can figure out, is a system audit Sarbanes Oxley specialist for a bank. He says that he can find almost any IM , archiving turned on or off.

I know how to turn my laptop on- I have to take his word for it.

doesn't matter if it is AIM, MS, Yahoo.....

That stuff can be traced through any network. At least the Republicans don't get the Internets yet!!!

I used to have AIM & YahooIM on my laptop, both of those interfaces leave files on your computer. I hopefully scrubbed all of those files!!!

Who knows when those servers are purged? In my experience, no one deletes what is on the servers, it's all archived!!!

So there is a possibility that the IM's you sent in 1995, 1999 or 2006 are on a server somewhere. So be careful on what you send!!

I know that AOL has a HUGE data center in Ashburn, MD. That complex is HUGE, who knows what is in there???

All I know that there is at least 20,000 sq ft of servers!!!