Thursday, October 14, 2010

Facebook Users Can No Longer Delete Chat History

Via MSNBC.com -

It's starting to feel like anyone with anything to hide needs to find better hiding spots. For instance, people trying to keep their Facebook chats from prying eyes best find another IM program, because they can no longer erase chat history.

I discovered this while chatting the other day. Anyone who's ever IM'd knows those conversations can go all over the place, and frankly, I like to think of each conversation as a fresh start.

Nick O'Neill on AllFacebook also noticed, and linked to a forum where there are 132 posts complaining about the removal of the popular feature.

Sheesh, what's with this need to keep things? We just found out yesterday "deleted" photos stay on Facebook servers far longer than we ever would have imagined. Now, we find out conversations linger, too.

It used to be there, under your the thumbnail of your profile pic, in the chat box, a link that said, "Clear Chat History." It's been a feature since Facebook launched its chat program in April 2008. Now, our profile pics follow us on the chat as our avatars instead of our first names and that link is gone, to the great consternation of some Facebook users.

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Instead of using Facebook chat, I would suggest using Pidgin on Windows along with the Off-the-Record (OTR) plugin.

OTR uses a combination of the AES symmetric-key algorithm, the Diffie-Hellman (DH) key exchange, and the SHA-1 hash function to provide authentication, encryption, perfect forward secrecy and malleable encryption (aka deniability).

For users that prefer Apple OS, check out Adium. Like Pidgin, it supports multiple IM networks and supports OTR out of the box - no additional plugin required.

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