Instant messaging programs represent a cesspool of online  user monitoring. Google, Yohoo and MSN  provide free IMing as a gateway to track consumers online behavior. From how many contacts you have in your address book, how often you send instant messages, to  all your search engine queries and clicks, instant messaging programs are just another way to relinquish Internet privacy. 

To shed a little light on what the various instant message services mean to your privacy, we've copied some of the bullet points of their policy  to help you understand the ambiguous verbiage:

GOOGLE: When you use Google Talk, we may record information about your usage, such as when you use Google Talk, the size of your contact list and the contacts you communicate with, and the frequency and size of data transfers. Information displayed or clicked on in the Google Talk interface (including UI elements, settings, and other information) is also recorded.

Interpretation: After you sign up for our instant messaging service, be prepared for us to monitor all of your Internet activity.

GOOGLE: On a regular basis, we delete activity information associated with your account.

Summary: Although "regular basis" is a subjective term, don't worry about us keeping any superfluous instant messages that send happy, or sad faces, we only maintain information that helps us develop a complete composite of who you are, your personality and the types of ads that you are most prone to click.  

GOOGLE: We may combine the information you submit under your account with information from other Google services or third parties in order to provide you with a better experience and to improve the quality of our services.

Interpretation: We need your information to keep us in business.

 

GOOGLE: For certain services, we may give you the opportunity to opt out of combining such information.

As much as we try to monetize all of our services, we  have not figured out how to exploit all of your online activity. So, until we do--enjoy our services and don't bother looking for an opt out option because we never programmed one. 

GOOGLE: If Google becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of its assets, we will provide notice before personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Interpretation: When we decide to sell our company or IM service, thanks to people like you, across the world, we'll make a minimum of $5 billion. But in the interim, we'll send you a cordial email notice -- that your information has transferred to another organization.

YAHOO!: We reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to the Yahoo! service, such as service announcements, administrative messages and the Yahoo! Newsletter, that are considered part of your Yahoo! account, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them.

Interpretation: As long as you're subscribed to use our service, expect our us to spam you on a regular basis.

Now out of all the YAHOO!, Google and MSN instant messaging programs, only one offers a clear cut opt out option. Below is MSN's detailed oriented 

privacy policy.

_____________________________________________ 

MSN: When we display online advertisements to you, we will place a persistent cookie on your computer in order to recognize your computer each time we display an ad to you. Because we may serve advertisements on many different Web sites, we are able to compile information over time about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw and/or clicked on the advertisements we display. We use this information to make predictions about your characteristics, interests or preferences and to display targeted advertisements that we believe may be of interest to you. We may also associate this information with your subsequent visit, purchase or other activity on participating advertisers’ Web sites in order to determine the effectiveness of the advertisements.

While we may use some of the information we collect in order to personalize the ads we show you, we designed our systems to select ads based only on data that does not personally and directly identify you. For example, we may select the ads we display according to certain general interest categories or segments that we have inferred based on (a) demographic or interest data, including any you may have provided when creating an account (e.g. age, zip or postal code, gender), demographic or interest data acquired from other companies, and a general geographic location derived from your IP address, (b) the pages you view and links you click when using Microsoft’s and its advertising partners’ Web sites and services, and (c) the search terms you enter when using Microsoft’s Internet search services, such as Live Search.

When we display personalized ads, we take a number of steps designed to protect your privacy. For example, we store page views, clicks and search terms used for ad personalization separately from your contact information or other data that directly identifies you (such as your name, e-mail address, etc.). Further, we have built in technological and process safeguards designed to prevent the unauthorized correlation of this data. We also give you the ability to opt-out of personalized ads. For more information or to use the opt-out feature, you may visit our opt-out page.

When we display online advertisements to you, we will place a persistent cookie on your computer in order to recognize your computer each time we display an ad to you. Because we may serve advertisements on many different Web sites, we are able to compile information over time about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw and/or clicked on the advertisements we display. We use this information to make predictions about your characteristics, interests or preferences and to display targeted advertisements that we believe may be of interest to you. We may also associate this information with your subsequent visit, purchase or other activity on participating advertisers’ Web sites in order to determine the effectiveness of the advertisements.

While we may use some of the information we collect in order to personalize the ads we show you, we designed our systems to select ads based only on data that does not personally and directly identify you. For example, we may select the ads we display according to certain general interest categories or segments that we have inferred based on (a) demographic or interest data, including any you may have provided when creating an account (e.g. age, zip or postal code, gender), demographic or interest data acquired from other companies, and a general geographic location derived from your IP address, (b) the pages you view and links you click when using Microsoft’s and its advertising partners’ Web sites and services, and (c) the search terms you enter when using Microsoft’s Internet search services, such as Live Search.

When we display personalized ads, we take a number of steps designed to protect your privacy. For example, we store page views, clicks and search terms used for ad personalization separately from your contact information or other data that directly identifies you (such as your name, e-mail address, etc.). Further, we have built in technological and process safeguards designed to prevent the unauthorized correlation of this data. We also give you the ability to opt-out of personalized ads. For more information or to use the opt-out feature, you may visit our opt-out page.

________________________________________________________

So, the next time you consider instant messaging (IM) someone, remember what you say and do is being, tracked, monitored and recorded -- for advertisers and big brother of course.