Looks like AOL has heard everyone’s issues. AOL will revise its user agreement to stress that it does not eavesdrop on IM conversations except in unusual circumstances (such as a court order).

I will wait to reserve final judgement on it until I actually read the changes, but this is a very positive development.

I still believe that this should jumpstart the effort to create an encryption standard for use by all IM clients so I can rely on my conversations having at least some privacy. I’m not a fool in the sense that it will be perfectly secure, but it would be better then everything being sent out in clear text across the Internet.

Then again, e-mail has had the same issues for much longer and we aren’t anywhere near an universal standard for encryption that is easy-to-use.