A CNET survey in June 2008 found that half of the instant messaging services provide full encryption:
We found that only half of the services provide complete encryption: AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, IBM’s Lotus Sametime, and Skype do. To their credit, not one service says it keeps logs of the content of users’ communications (a certain lure for federal investigators or snoopy divorce attorneys). For connection logs, Microsoft alone said it keeps none at all—though Google and Skype said their logs were deleted after a short time.
Interesting is, that in AOL’s third instant messaging survey nothing is mentioned about security from user perspective.
Top IM Uses Include:
- To chat with family or friends: 87 percent
- To share photos: 38 percent
- To send celebratory wishes, such as Happy Birthday: 37 percent
- To set up weekend or evening activities: 34 percent
- To gossip: 31 percent
- To share files: 29 percent
- To flirt: 27 percent
- To make and talk to new friends I meet in chat rooms: 27 percent
- To keep in touch with family or friends oversees: 26 percent
- To communicate with others at work: 25 percent
Interest in Future Features:
- Live streaming television: 26 percent
- Music on demand: 25 percent
- Video on demand: 21 percent
- PC to Phone VOIP calling: 20 percent
Security and privacy should be a major user requirement to help secure private and work communication.
Experienced users use for example plugins like pidgin-otr (off-the-record messaging) to secure their instant messages.
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