§ 05f · The Inbox · LifeLog · FR

An ICQ contact list from around 1999, with green and red flower status icons, beside an AOL Instant Messenger box reading You have been disconnected for accessing the AOL network using unauthorized software.

LifeLog asked for the inbox.

In 2008 Yahoo fought the government in a secret court over its users’ mail, under threat of $250,000 a day. It lost. In 2015 it built a program to search every incoming email for US intelligence.

ICQ knew you by a number, and let you keep your own logs. It was sold to a Russian company in 2010, needed a phone number by 2019, and was switched off in June 2024.

The archive LifeLog had to ask for now sits with whoever owns the server.

Read § 05fnarrated · 5:17

A Feline Union investigative file · lifelog.felineunion.org