Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AOL Lifestream... WTF!?

MonkeySee....

MonkeySee....

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 24, 2010
3,858
437
UK
John89 said:
From AOL....

Thank you for your recent inquiry.

Lifestream is bundled with AIM for Windows 7+, AIM for Mac 2.0+, AIM
Express, AIM for iPhone, AIM for iPad, AIM for Android, AIM for Windows
Mobile. If you are using any of the above versions of the AIM software,
Lifestream is a feature of the product. You can, however, hide the tabs
you don't use by clicking the Lifestream tab and selecting the drop down
arrow on the tab. Select Hide Lifestream & Me tabs.

You can manage the services that show up in your AOL Lifestream from the
web anytime. Type http://lifestream.aol.com/settings and log in with
your account credentials. Click the trashcan icon to remove this service
from your Lifestream. Any future posts from this service will be
removed; however, all posts made previously will remain in AOL
Lifestream. You can also manage your services from any of our
applications' Me tabs.

You can decide who has access to your Lifestream activity. We offer
three levels of privacy: Just Me, Buddies Only, and Everyone-Public. If
you choose Just Me, your Lifestream activities will not be available to
anyone but you.

To manage your settings, go to http://lifestream.aol.com/settings. Next,
find the service you would like to manage. Services you have added are
listed under the heading "You are currently using". Click Settings and
choose the option right for you under the "Who can see my activities?"
menu. Don't forget to click Save Settings. Continue until you have set
settings for each service.

Regards,
AOL Privacy Team



I don't use any of the applications at the top, so I still have no idea why they have created an account for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that.

the only IM clients i have on my mac are Adium and iChat. :confused:
 
C

cloakedpegasus

macrumors member
Apr 13, 2010
80
0
WOHA HOLD ON! If I use Ichat and login with my mobileme account, AOL will now have my account information????? IS THIS CONFIRMED?
 
J

John89

macrumors regular
Dec 23, 2008
247
0
Scotland
Never heard back from Apple about it, so I went to the online chat thing again.

Spoke to a random who didn't see the problem with it.

Spoke to a Senior Advisor called Vincent. He was useless and didn't want know about it. Kept telling me this is a good thing how all my social accounts were merged to one. Sounded like a kid on Christmas morning to be honest.

I got him to sign in and all his iChat contacts were there, didn't seem to bothered that this information was freely available without his knowing.

All in all I was pretty disgusted as to how the Customer Service team treated the problem. I will be looking elsewhere once my MM subscription has run out this year.

EDIT.
Heard back from someone at Apple.

Hi John,

my name is Julian and I am a MobileMe Senior Advisor.

I understand that you are concerned about your privacy regarding aol's lifestream.

I've forwarded your request to our engineering department, so they can investigate this issue further. Unfortunately I won't be able to tell you when I will receive a reply from them, but as soon as I get an update on your case I will let you know as soon as possible.

Until then I can only ask for your patience and I would like to thank your for your help on this case so far.

Kind regards,

Julian Fischer
 
Last edited:
3

317342

Cancelled
May 21, 2009
785
569
John89 said:
I've forwarded your request to our engineering department, so they can investigate this issue further. Unfortunately I won't be able to tell you when I will receive a reply from them, but as soon as I get an update on your case I will let you know as soon as possible.
Click to expand...

Translation = "We'll get around to it when our engineers--not you--feel it's important."
 
G2244

G2244

macrumors member
Mar 4, 2009
89
2
I can't believe that this has not gotten more attention anywhere. Luckily I opted to not use iChat since I saw that it was tied to AOL (I guess I had a hunch a while back that might not be so good). When I check the lifestream site I get the bunny. Thanks to all who have posted here anyway.

What struck me as extra odd was that there was a post on the Apple Support Discussion Forums that discussed this exact issue and it has already been "archived" and does not allow replies. It is titled "MobileMe iChat Privacy > AOL Lifestream" if you care to check it out. So am I to understand that someone at Apple is trying to hide this from further discussion??
 
H

hexonxonx

macrumors 601
Jul 4, 2007
4,610
1
Denver Colorado
G2244 said:
I can't believe that this has not gotten more attention anywhere. Luckily I opted to not use iChat since I saw that it was tied to AOL (I guess I had a hunch a while back that might not be so good). When I check the lifestream site I get the bunny. Thanks to all who have posted here anyway.

What struck me as extra odd was that there was a post on the Apple Support Discussion Forums that discussed this exact issue and it has already been "archived" and does not allow replies. It is titled "MobileMe iChat Privacy > AOL Lifestream" if you care to check it out. So am I to understand that someone at Apple is trying to hide this from further discussion??
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter if you use iChat or not. Your MobileMe login, logs you into Lifestream. You get a screen with a bunny and an error but when you click on any other link on that page, you see that it has logged you in.
 
J

John89

macrumors regular
Dec 23, 2008
247
0
Scotland
Had various emails between me and Apple over the last few days. They are still investigation the situation.

Will keep updating when I hear anything.
 
3

317342

Cancelled
May 21, 2009
785
569
I will be surprised if Apple does anything remotely positive on this.

The part that tugs at me is your MobileMe login credentials are shared with AOL, ergo your account security is only as good as AOL's. Am I wrong? :eek:
 
H

hexonxonx

macrumors 601
Jul 4, 2007
4,610
1
Denver Colorado
G2244 said:
Yeah, maybe we should get the thread renamed to "Apple Gives AOL *All* MobileMe Userids and PWs."
Click to expand...

I don't think Apple gave AOL the Mobile Me logins from every single user. I think AOL simply has the page setup to accept anyone who logs in using a MM login and simply creates a new account for these users.

AOL has been desperate for years to attract members to their services. It started back in the early 2000s when they made the AOL service free but hid that fact from current members who continued paying $25/month for years to come.

Back then, AOL used AOL Hometown for member profiles and a few years later, ditched that when they bought Bebo. They gave all AOL members a free login to Bebo and after a short time, they began losing tons of cash on that as well. They soon ditched Bebo and began with Lifestream. My AIM app on my iPhone has a button for Lifestream which is a feature rarely used by anyone using AIM.

The notion that AOL is loging in people automatically when using a MM login makes more sense to me when you look ay how desperate they have become in the last decade.
 
J

John89

macrumors regular
Dec 23, 2008
247
0
Scotland
So Apple finally got back to me.

The engineers are not able to produce the the problem with new accounts, but can with old accounts. They are going to continue to investigate.

They also said you can opt out now. I couldn't see how, so the guy is going to send me instructions soon. I will post them here when I have them.


I also got an extra 30days added to my MM account for free. So might be worth calling up and complaining :)
 
MonkeySee....

MonkeySee....

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 24, 2010
3,858
437
UK
John89 said:
So Apple finally got back to me.

The engineers are not able to produce the the problem with new accounts, but can with old accounts. They are going to continue to investigate.

They also said you can opt out now. I couldn't see how, so the guy is going to send me instructions soon. I will post them here when I have them.


I also got an extra 30days added to my MM account for free. So might be worth calling up and complaining :)
Click to expand...

Thanks John89. Look forward to seeing the instructions!
 
G

Guillo

macrumors newbie
Apr 6, 2011
1
0
What happened to the instructions? I got forcefully signed in as well and I want none of it, but I can't find a way to delete my account...
 
A

altecXP

macrumors 65816
Aug 3, 2009
1,115
1
a MobileMe account is also an AOL account. have you guys never noticed that?

Thats why iTunes uses AOL accounts also, and why then you log into iCHat you can add AIM buddies to your Friend list.

As soon as you make a MobileMe account you created an AOL account and get all the crap you hate along with it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom