From: Cu Digest (tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu)  <TK0JUT2@MVS.CSO.NIU.EDU>
Subject: Cu Digest, #9.60, Wed 30 Jul 97

Computer underground Digest    Wed  July 30, 1997   Volume 9 : Issue 60
                           ISSN  1004-042X

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 00:30:02 -0500
From: jthomas@SUN.SOCI.NIU.EDU(Jim Thomas)
Subject: File 6--America Online Backs Off Plan (NYT Excerpt)

    America Online Backs Off Plan to Give Out Phone Numbers<
                        By SETH SCHIESEL

  Responding Thursday to consumer outrage and mounting concerns
 about privacy in cyberspace, America Online, the largest online
 service provider, abandoned its plans to begin providing lists
 of its customers' telephone numbers to telemarketers and other
 direct-sales peddlers.

    The reversal came less than 24 hours after the plans became
 widely known through news accounts and online postings. America
 Online drew immediate fire from politicians and privacy-rights
 groups for the telemarketing venture, in part because the
 company for years had assured subscribers that it would not
 release their phone numbers and other personal information to
 outside parties.

  Because America Online's 8 million subscribers are already
 besieged by "junk" electronic mail, customers bemoaned the
 prospect of some of those same advertisers, or different ones,
 ringing the phone at home.

<snip>

  Like magazines and other businesses with valuable subscription
 lists, America Online has already been selling lists of its
 subscribers' names and addresses.  But those lists do not
 include the corresponding e-mail addresses or customer phone
 numbers. A few weeks ago, however, America Online quietly
 proposed changing its longstanding policy to begin selling its
 telephone lists.

  Privacy advocates said that adding phone numbers to the mix
 would allow marketers to cross-tabulate with additional sorts of
 information that people might not be aware they were exposing by
 simply signing up to an online service.

<snip>

  America Online would not reveal how many of its members called,
 faxed or sent electronic mail to the company to vent their
 displeasure. America Online executives insisted that they did
 not intend to "rent" the phone numbers.  Instead, they said,
 American Online would provide the numbers to companies only as
 one part of an overall marketing deal.

  "The only calls we intended for you to receive would have been
 from AOL and a limited number of quality-controlled AOL
 partners," said Stephen Case, the company's chief executive, in
 a letter to subscribers Thursday.

  Those partners would have included Tel-Save Inc., a discount
 long-distance telephone company that reached a $100 million
 marketing pact with America Online in February, and CUC
 International Inc., a telemarketing giant that made a $50
 million deal with America Online last month.
<snip>

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 00:29:57 -0500
From: jthomas@SUN.SOCI.NIU.EDU(Jim Thomas)
Subject: File 7--Letter from AOL's Steve Case to Members

July 24, 1997

Dear Members,

You may have heard that AOL is now selling lists of member phone
numbers and e-mail addresses. This is not true. We'd like to
explain what we're doing and why we're doing it.

As we've said in the past, we want to make AOL membership as
valuable to you as possible. One of the ways we can do that is
by utlilizing the size of the AOL membership to attract special
member discounts on popular products and services, and to create
customized products and services just for AOL members.

We recently decided to offer discount long distance telephone
service to AOL members that will provide high quality service at
rates that are below those you can get from other providers. We
also recently decided to make discount buying clubs for popular
products like cars, and services like travel, available to you,
and they will incorporate special AOL-only member benefits.

These new features will begin to become available to you starting
this Fall. We will start notifying you about availability, and
giving you an opportunity to try them, at that time. Although we
haven't finalized the marketing plans, in general we'll use the
AOL service itself to notify you. But we do plan to try
telemarketing as well.

In advance of these Fall launches, on July 1 we had posted
anticipated changes to our "Terms of Service" to indicate that
we might from time to time make the telephone numbers of AOL
members available to AOL partners for telemarketing.  This has
generated all the attention, as some feel it is a mistake to
permit telemarketing at all, and others think it was a mistake
not to notify members more proactively about our plans. We
should have been clearer about the fact that we changed the
Terms of Service, and about the rationale for the change.
Obviously, by not being more proactive, we've generated a lot of
confusion and concern.

To be clear, we never intended to make our members' telephone
numbers available for rental to telemarketers. The only calls we
intended for you to receive would have been from AOL and a
limited number of quality-controlled AOL partners. However, upon
further reflection, today we decided to change our plans. We
will not provide lists of our members' telephone numbers, even
to our partners whose products we still plan to offer you. The
only calls you might receive will be from us.

We realize that privacy is important to you, and you don't want
to be inundated with marketing pitches. So let's quickly review
the AOL policies in this regard.

DIRECT MAIL -- As is standard industry practice, we rent
addresses of members, to preselected companies. To be clear, we
rent only "aggregate" lists of "AOL members" and closely monitor
their use. We will, on request, specify which of our members use
Windows or Macintosh computers. But we do not rent lists based
on what AOL services are used, so you can be assured that your
privacy is being protected. If you would like to have your name
removed from the rental lists, all you have to do is go to
Keyword: MARKETING PREFS.

E-MAIL -- We do not rent e-mail addresses of members. There are
companies that compile such lists and make them available for
sale but we have no part in that, and are doing everything we
can to stop it, including filing lawsuits against those
companies. We realize that "junk e-mail" (also known as
"spamming") is a significant inconvenience these days, and we
are working hard to stop it.

TELEMARKETING -- We do not rent lists of telephone numbers.  As
we described above, the only calls you get will be from AOL
offering products or services that we genuinely believe will be
of interest to you. We'll post details in the Fall about how
these programs work. However, if you wish to remove your name
from the list today or at any other time so you won't receive
these calls, go to Keyword MARKETING PREFS.

For more than a decade, we've built AOL by earning your trust.
We will continue to listen to you and do everything we can to
serve your needs now and in the years ahead.

We hope this has helped to clarify what we're doing, and why
we're doing it.

Sincerely,

Steve Case