Citizens of America believe that we can contact our representatives in Congress. In fact, we are told by online email vendors that they will contact our representatives for us, and we send thousands of emails every year through these gatekeepers. What if none of our emails ever made it to the destination? What if all of your emails ended up in cybertrash, but you were not told?

What are YOU going to do about this?

Betsy Combier

PoliticsOnline.com

Email Your Congressman?
LINK

The Internet and e-mail have made it easier than ever for citizens to communicate with their Congress. But how confident should citizens be that the e-mails they send in fact reach their elected representative?

A study published by Capitol Advantage, under the guidance of Dr. Dennis Johnson, reviewed email deliverability by online advocacy vendors.

The study tested 37 offices that use an auto- responder to confirm a message has been received by the office. The research found that several of the vendors failed miserably in their ability to send e- mails to Congress: 6 of the 10 could not deliver 50 percent of the e-mail through their systems.

And even worse than failing to deliver, it appears that most vendors did not even inform the citizen about the failure. There were no indications by any of the vendors that they informed customers when they were unable to deliver e-mail messages to Congress.

"Citizens would be understandably upset if they knew that letters they sent through the U.S. Post Office were never delivered," writes Dennis W. Johnson, the George Washington University professor who oversaw the study for the e-mail company. "Unfortunately, there is strong evidence that much of the electronic mail that citizens assume is reaching Congress is ending up in an electronic trash can."

Vendors, who promise to deliver online messages to Congress, but fail to do so, are robbing clients and citizens of an essential democratic right.

Study Finds Missed Messages On Capitol Hill
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Monday, October 2, 2006; D01
LINK

When citizens send e-mails to their congressmen through the Web sites of lobby groups, they expect those messages to zip electronically to the place they intended.

It turns out that isn't always the case.

A new study by a company that routes thousands of these e-mails to Congress shows that plenty of constituent e-mails never reach lawmakers' offices.

"Citizens would be understandably upset if they knew that letters they sent through the U.S. Post Office were never delivered," writes Dennis W. Johnson, a George Washington University professor who oversaw the study for the e-mail company, Capitol Advantage. "Unfortunately, there is strong evidence that much of the electronic mail that citizens assume is reaching Congress is ending up in an electronic trash can."

Congress has had an e-mail problem for years. It is deluged with an estimated 200 million constituent messages annually, the vast majority of them electronic. The number is so large and is growing so quickly that lawmakers are desperate to find ways to throttle the volume.

The number of e-mails has mushroomed in part because of the now-common practice among interest groups to rally their troops via cyberspace. Generally, a lobby will send an e-mail to its most eager members, which directs them to a Web site. Once there, the members fill out a form that routes to lawmakers e-mails that advocate whatever it is the group is pressing for at the moment.

Lawmakers have come up with ingenious methods to undermine the effectiveness of such programs. As readers of this column know, some congressional offices are now insisting that would-be e-mailers solve a simple math problem (to prove they are real human beings and not some machine spamming them with the push of a button). Many offices are also demanding that constituents disclose what issue they want to communicate about and to reveal information about themselves: Zip code, street address, e-mail address, phone number and the like.

Now we know that these efforts are working well. According to the Capitol Advantage study, six of the 10 leading companies that run Web sites that send e-mails for interest groups failed to deliver even half of those e-mails through their systems.

That is a big disappointment. After all, aren't public officials supposed to be open to the public?

The survey wasn't as comprehensive as I might have liked and the companies that set up the Web sites are disputing its findings. But its overall conclusion is difficult to contradict: Lobby organizations are having a hard time getting e-mail to Congress.

"There's a lot of resentment toward us on Capitol Hill," said Bill Pease, chief technology officer of GetActive Software Inc., a vendor of public policy programs for the Web.

Lawmakers tend to think that e-mail communications and, in fact, almost all mass mailings are fake and can easily be disregarded, several executives said.

To get around the hurdles, Web site operators have taken to faxing the e-mails to legislators. For example, the Business Industry Political Action Committee, or BIPAC, routinely faxes to Congress messages that started out as e-mails typed into its sites by constituents. So does Democracy Data & Communications LLC, which also runs regular hand deliveries to Capitol Hill so it can be doubly sure that messages reach targets.

All of this, of course, is absurd. Electronic messages are being delivered on paper. Many of the missives that actually reach their targets are not accorded attention by the people who matter. Faxes, in particular, have low credibility with lawmakers.

Which leads to the more interesting question: Can democracy be conducted through shortcuts?

The Internet allows interest groups to mobilize their members with incredible ease and speed. Hundreds, even thousands of messages can be directed to individual lawmakers with a single, well-placed e-mail alert to trained zealots back home. Even with the obstacles placed in the way of these communications, e-mails roll into Congress at an amazing rate.

So amazing, in fact, that it is possible that lawmakers have become inured to the sheer volume and have learned not to care as much about them.

An earlier poll of congressional staffers, also underwritten by Capitol Advantage, touched on this. It discovered that half of the aides it surveyed thought the folks whose names were attached to the e-mails they receive aren't aware that the e-mails were sent to Capitol Hill. Another 25 percent of staffers questioned whether those communications were legitimate.

That strikes me as the bigger issue: Not whether every e-mail is getting through to Congress but how many of them are being read with serious interest. I bet a closer look at that issue would be even more unsettling to Web site operators and their clients than the latest estimate of delivery rates.

Qorvis Branches Out

Qorvis Communications LLC has bought Sparky's Garage. No, the fast-growing public relations firm isn't going into the auto repair business. Sparky's Garage is a local advertising firm, and Qorvis has bought the seven-person shop in the belief that commercials will play an ever larger role in lobbying.

But not just any commercials. "A lot of issue advertising turns out to be very expensive memos to Congress or the administration," said Qorvis's Michael J. Petruzzello. "And it's hard to quantify if it's reaching its target audience and whether it's effective."

Sparky's Garage, now known as Qorvis Advertising, "will bring a fresh approach to issue advertising," Petruzzello promised, by integrating its commercials with the Internet and grass-roots lobbying. And adding some pizzazz.

The five-year-old ad agency's founder Bill Replogle (who called himself the chief mechanic) has worked on accounts that range from Harley-Davidson to the Washington Nationals. Those kind of clients don't normally cross paths with public policy types. But maybe the mixture will wake up the Washington wonks. That's what Qorvis is betting.

Jeffrey Birnbaum writes about the intersection of government and business every other Monday. His e-mail address iskstreetconfidential@washpost.com.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Communicating with Congress
Connecting Citizens and Legislators

How Blogs Influenced the Foley Story
By Caroline E. Ruse and Josh Swartzlander
LINK

(AXcess News) Washington - ABC News was the first traditional media outlet to report explicit instant messages between former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and under-aged congressional pages, but an Internet blog broke the story almost a week earlier.

The Stop Sex Predators Now blog posted suggestive e-mails about Foley on Sept. 24, after several earlier posts charging him with inappropriate conduct. The blog's role in exposing the controversy raises questions that traditional journalists and experts have been asking about the relationship between blogs and the Fourth Estate.

Few bloggers have broken national stories. Matt Drudge was the first to report about Monica Lewinsky in 1998, and FreeRepublic.com discredited documents that CBS used in a 2004 story about President Bush's military service.

Glenn Reynolds, who created the blog instantpundit.com in August 2001, said the Foley controversy shows that mainstream media outlets are becoming increasingly willing to look for stories on blogs.

"It's the media playing catch-up," he said, adding that blogs, where people frequently post anonymous comments, are ideal for leaking political information.

Reynolds, who is also a law professor at the University of Tennessee, said the blogspot blog, which is only about two months old, acted less as a watchdog and more as a dumping ground for scandalous information.

"The odds that this was put together by a political operation seems likely," he said.

Because bloggers operate as individuals instead of as employees of traditional news organizations, they don't necessarily abide by journalistic standards of accuracy and fairness.

"They don't operate under the same restraints as journalists do," said Barry Hollander, an associate professor at the University of Georgia who specializes in computer-assisted reporting. "It's very hard for reporters to write about rumor. It's much easier for bloggers to do so."

The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times knew about the congressman's e-mails as early as November but could not get the 16-year-old page who allegedly received Foley's inappropriate e-mails to speak on the record. The paper did not run a story.

"The journalists had it," Hollander said, "but they weren't confident enough because the kid wouldn't go on the record and speak, which makes journalists very nervous."

Ralph Braseth, a blogger and the director of student media at the University of Mississippi, said blogs are good for casting a wide net to look for sources, but should be viewed with a skeptical eye.

"One of the reasons blogs are so interesting and problematic and important is that we often get sources that are simply not on our radar as journalists," he said.

Despite blogs' unreliability, Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism at Iowa State University, said bloggers play an important role in holding public officials and traditional media accountable.

"Each blogger is not necessarily as important as the network of bloggers, who raise questions to the point where answers must be provided," he said.

Gilbert Bailon, vice president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and editor and publisher of Al Día in Dallas, said bloggers are not journalists but do influence them.

"I think the distinction has to be made because there is often opinion in blogs," Bailon said. "They're not authoritative enough to provide hard evidence, but they can produce new leads."

Bailon said blogs also pose new problems for journalists, who may be pressured to report a story gaining attention in cyberspace without checking the facts.

But that pressure is not a new trend, Hollander said.

"Since the early '90s, the tabloids would run a story that traditional media wouldn't touch," he said. "Once it became part of the public domain, there was more pressure for mainstream papers to report on it. The Internet and blogs have simply accelerated the process."

Blogs on Monday continued to post stories that mixed fact with speculation about Foley.

Many prominent blogs, including the Huffington Post, posted lengthy instant-message correspondence, including inappropriate sexual content between Foley and a page.

Wonkette, a blog that bills itself as a "blend of gossip and satire and things the author makes up," posted pictures of Foley's head superimposed on an alien from the movie "Battlefield Earth."

It also posted pictures, linked from the Palm Beach Post's Web site, of Foley smiling with Sen. George Allen, R-Va., under the headline, "Scattered Pictures, Of the Smiles We Left Behind." Allen is under public scrutiny because of allegations that he made racist remarks.

Anonymous comments from pages who claimed to know that Foley acted inappropriately were posted on the blogspot.com site.

One, dated Sept. 21, read: "I am tired of people treating this thing with Congressman Mark Foley like a joke. It is not funny. He's a danger to any young, slightly attractive young man on The Hill."

Source: Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

STOP SEX PREDATORS NOW

Thursday, October 05, 2006
I CAN'T RESIST
There are a few points I want to address. I keep seeing things in the press and on the blogs (which I never read until all of this started going on).

First, I can't believe that Speaker Dennis Hastert is blaming this blog on people like George Soros and Bill Clinton. That's just an attempt at escaping responsibility. What does it matter who actually posted those first emails? Which leads me to my next point.....

How the heck can the FBI investigate this? Media reports say that they had the emails that I posted over a year ago. How are they investigating the House leadership for not handling it when they got the emails and they didn't look into it either?

Although I totally blasted the media earlier for being lame for a whole year on this matter, I think they may be our best hope for the entire truth coming out in this matter. So, I hope they will ask questions about not only when Republican Leadership knew about it, what they did, how they were connected, what favors took place, etc; BUT, I hope they will also ask questions about who in the FBI let this go without investigating.

The TRUE HERO here is the page who reported the emails in the first place. Can you imagine how he has felt over the past year? For an ENTIRE year, NOTHING was done to show this kid that he was justified in reporting this sexual predator to the authorities. I've seen a lot of press and read a lot of blogs in the past week, but NOBODY has given this kid credit for the incredible courage that he showed not only a year ago, but for the entire past year while he MUST have questioned if he did the right thing. Well, he did. Kudos to him.
posted by Stop Sex Predators at 1:25 PM

GOOD POINTS FROM READERS
Just having gone through the hundreds of emails I have recently received, I found a couple of points that I feel warrant being posted. They come from two separate emails, so I will copy the body of both below, but also withholding their names/email addresses. I generally agree with the points that they make and thank them for sending them along.

FIRST EMAIL:

First, I'd like to CONGRATULATE you on your efforts to stop sexual predators! Anyone who has been a victim of incest can identify with how it feels to be sexually hounded by someone and the requistie lifelong effects that has. You are providing a much-needed outlet for these young people who have been preyed upon; often times they are confused by the action(s) and feel they are the only ones who have experienced it.

Second, I just have a few suggestions in light of the Congressman Foley scandal. Since many interested people will be checking out your blog for information, I suggest you make clear what defines a sexual predator. Combined with the political spin about the Foley scandal, and people's general confusion about this issue, the facts are getting marred. For example, often times the fact that these pages were minors -- under the age of 18 yrs. -- is seeming to escape peoples' thoughts. And, more importantly, people are forgetting that sexual predatory behavior of a minor is a CRIME! It is not "flirting," just sending "naughty emails," or happening because one is homosexual.

The point I'm making is, like incest or sexual assault, sexual predators come in all forms -- and from all classes. I see nearly every night on my local news, stories about sexual predators, and more often they not, they are not the ones in business suits; rather, they are portrayed as some working class thug. So I'm proposing that those who post on your blog, provide their ages during the time they were preyed upon, and where it occurred (meaning the context, like "at work"), and how it made them feel.

I feel your blog is going to be a very useful tool ingetting sex predators. Good Luck with your efforts!


SECOND EMAIL:

I just came across your blog and wanted to say a few things.

First, your statement to the press is perfect!

Second, I'm sorry to hear that threatening comments had been posted, and that you've been receiving threatening emails. I have a hard time understanding why anyone should find fault with you, but then I have a hard time understanding much of what passes for logic among some people.

You do say to email you if there is something one feels needs to be posted. I have no information on this, but there is a point (two actually) that I think needs to be made. Since you have the ear of many people and a wonderful way with words, may I ask you to consider making one or both?

There is now discussion on eliminating the page program, and I don't understand why I've yet to hear anyone make the connection: If young people 16 years old up to college age aren't safe on Capitol Hill, it's probably not the pages who need to be removed. What does it say about our elected officials that we can't trust them around these kids? What does it say about us that we still trust them to run the country? What does it say about all of us, that we're considering doing away with a tradition as old as the country is, that provides a such a wonderful opportunity, with so little outcry? After all, it isn't that there's illness spreading, or natural dangers (prone to dangerous weather or earthquakes), or the high crime rate has been a problem for the kids. The threat is our own elected representatives!

The second point is emotionally charged, and if you're already getting threatening emails, you probably should stay away from this one. I would like to know though why Foley's homosexuality is such an issue. What if he had gone after female pages instead of male pages? Would that be all right? Maybe that is going on and no one is saying anything about it? As a fully heterosexual woman, it makes no difference to me if an unwanted sexual advance is made by a man or another woman. The minute I make it clear that it's unwanted, I expect it to stop. NO full adult should be preying on our kids, certainly no one in positions of power and authority. It doesn't matter what the gender of either one is! I'm concerned that Foley's sexual orientation is overshadowing the real issue here - he had no business treating ANY page as he did.

There is one way in which his sexual orientation is relevant. I find itamazing how many Republicans are gay, given the party platform on homosexuality. Can we say hypocrisy? But that's another matter entirely.
posted by Stop Sex Predators at 11:29 AM

USEFUL INFORMATION
Here are some great resources that have recently been emailed to me. It's taken quite a while to sift through all of the emails, but now that I've done that, I'm thankful to have some non-scandalous stuff to post.

Thank you to the thoughful folks out there who passed these sites on. I am happy to post them.

www.familywatchdog.us : This site supposedly gets much more traffic than the Department of Justice registry that I posted earlier. The emailer says that you can compare the two sites at www.alexa.com .

http://theparentsblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/child-sex-offender-lists.html : This one is related to another blog called www.mikespoints.com . It contains a couple of the websites that I have already posted, but a couple of extra resources as well.

I hope you find these useful. Thanks again for forwarding useful information to post.
posted by Stop Sex Predators at 11:22 AM

Wednesday, October 04, 2006
READ THIS
Hello Folks. Maybe I'm not so happy that so many people are coming to this blog site.

I'm not interested in media interviews. Thank you for your interest, but if you were doing your job to begin with, Mark Foley would have been exposed a long time ago. Instead of wanting to do a story about this blog, how about covering the fact that the media sat on this story for over a year. You're as bad as the Congressional Leadership that covered for Foley.

In case you didn't notice, all of the comments on the blog are gone? Wonder why? Because there are so many awful people out there. I started getting threats, so I decided that if somebody was going to threaten me, they were going to have to email me directly. So, they have continued to do so. There is no logical reason for someone to be so angry. I understand that the ramifications of these emails is far and wide. Much farther than I could ever have imagined. Regardless, think about how awareness has been raised.

AND.....here are the answers to some questions that have been posed. I am not Karl Rove, Mark Foley, or John Boehner. I am not employed in Democratic politics. I am not 'funded' by George Soros. I'm nobody that anybody should care about. So, please, go about your day as if I don't exist. If you have something that needs to be posted on this site, please let me know.
posted by Stop Sex Predators at 8:38 PM

Monday, October 02, 2006
Let's Focus....
Let's keep our eye on the ball here.

I'm thrilled that so many folks are looking at this simple blog. Please attempt to limit your comments to the purpose of this blog. I understand the media coverage is continuing to dominate Congressman Foley. Law enforcement is now involved and will sort out the truth. In the meantime, if you have further information, you can continue to email me at stopsexpredators@gmail.com .

If you have any ideas that I should post, please let me know. I'm happy to pass along information about the current situation, but would much prefer to keep marching toward the large goal or stopping sex predators. I don't think we'll see it in the Congress anytime soon, so let's focus our energy elsewhere.

Thank you again for your interest in www.stopsexpredators.blogspot.com !!!!
posted by Stop Sex Predators at 1:23 PM

Friday, September 29, 2006
WOW!
I'm not quite sure what to say. I started this blog a couple of months ago with the aim of stopping sex predators. It looks like we stopped ONE. A corrupt Congressman has resigned and dropped out of his race for re-election. THIS IS A GOOD START. And it's a good and visible start.

But let's not lose aim of what this site is about. This is a high moment in the beginning of our little web community. I've been very pleased at the amazing response we've had.

Please continue to visit the sight on a regular basis and report any information you know or have heard that we can look into.

We have gotten inquiries from almost every major news outlet in the country. Perhaps if we get good information on here again, I can go back to some of those reporters and they can help expose these predators. It might not be as big of a news story as the past few days, but maybe we can keep stopping them!!!!! That's what we're here for!! Thank you everyone for helping to stop our FIRST sex predator!
posted by Stop Sex Predators at 10:30 PM

Thursday, September 28, 2006
NEED MORE INFO!!!
I haven't posted anything since those emails came through. I never intended for this blog to go in this direction. BUT, after a lot of thought, I decided that this is just one moment in the roadway of this blog and it's actually living up to its purpose.

SO, WE NEED MORE INFORMATION!!! The number of hits the blog is getting is steadily increasing. Does anyone know anything about CONGRESSMAN RODNEY ALEXANDER? There are some comments under the post of the emails from Congressman Foley. What does it mean?
posted by Stop Sex Predators at 10:30 AM

Sunday, September 24, 2006
Emails from Congressman Foley to 16 Year Old Page!!!!




This is absolutely amazing. I just received these emails. They were sent by Congressman Mark Foley to a 16-year-old male page. I have removed his name to protect his identity. But how shocking is this? I can't believe this was emailed to me? There must be even more out there. Email me at stopsexpredators@gmail.com and let me know what we should do!!!! Something must be done!!!!
posted by Stop Sex Predators at 11:06 AM

Thursday, September 21, 2006
HOLY COW!!!
I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! This is another email that I received today. I'm absolutely flabbergasted. KEEP THE EMAILS COMING!!!!! Maybe we will get enough to make something happen!! Email me at stopsexpredators@gmail.com .

Here's the email:


From: No Body
Mailed-By: hotmail.com
To: stopsexpredators@gmail.com
Date: Sep 21, 2006 11:18 AM
Subject: No Laughing Matter
Reply Reply to all Forward Print Add sender to Contacts list Delete this message Report phishing Show original Message text garbled?
I am tired of people treating this thing with Congressman Mark Foley like ajoke. It is not funny. He's a danger to any young, slightly attractive youngman on The Hill. I came to Washington because I care about the future ofAmerica. I wanted to be around good and decent men like President GeorgeBush. Instead, I feel like a piece of meat. The worst part of it for me isthere appear to be plenty of my fellow interns who don't mind Foley'sparticular "path to power." Please, if there is anyone who knows what Ishould do tell me. I am genuinely afraid of this man. Anytime he is aroundhe just leers and one guy told me he asked for his email address and got abunch of invitations to go out and "party" whatever that means. Help. Help.Help.
posted by Stop Sex Predators at 4:47 PM

Shocking Emails:
I have been away for a while, so please accept my apologies for the lack of blog posts. BUT....while I was away, the blog has been noticed and some shocking emails have been received!!!! I can hardly believe it! I'm posting each one below. It's proof that the Congressional Corruption of the past is alive and well today. It's up to us to expose it and stop this predatory harassment! Please promote the blog and email any further information to stopsexpredators@gmail.com . Together we will make a difference!

FIRST EMAIL
From: congress intern
Signed-By: yahoo.com Mailed-By: yahoo.com
To: stopsexpredators@gmail.com
Date: Sep 12, 2006 12:34 PM
Reply Reply to all Forward Print Add sender to Contacts list Delete this message Report phishing Show original Message text garbled?

I saw your article’s about Congressional sex scandals with interns. Let me share what happened to me.I was near the end of my internship for Congressman Foley’s office he asked me for my email. I was not sure why he wanted but I gave it to him anyway. A few days later I got an email from him in the middle of the night asking me for pictures. I sent him a few pictures of me and other interns at work. A few days later he emailed me asking for more pictures of me but not from work. He was looking for personal pictures of me. I ignored the email he started emailing me telling me that he was going to be visiting my area. H e said he wanted to get together with me. he wanted me to come up to his hotel romm. I think that he was looking to have sex with me. After\n that email I block him from my email address

Congressintern01


SECOND EMAIL
From: hill boy
Signed-By: yahoo.com Mailed-By: yahoo.com
To: stopsexpredators@gmail.com
Date: Sep 17, 2006 7:55 PM
Subject: Outraged by skinterns?
Reply Reply to all Forward Print Add sender to Contacts list Delete this message Report phishing Show original Message text garbled?


After reading your post on skinterns I wanted to fill you in on what really goes on in the halls of Congress.
I used to be a House LA on the Hill working.
When I was working up there, folks use to refer to the Terrible Three – Barney Frank, Mark Foley, and Jim Kolbe.
Everyone knows about Barney Frank’s exploits…living with a man who ran a gay prostitute ring out of Frank’s house…and how he how used to hit on men much younger than him.
And Jim Kolbe…everyone who works on the Hill has heard rumors about Kolbe. One of my friends even told me that Kolbe hit on him on several occasions.
Despite all the stories, Frank and Kolbe are well respected because when they got caught, they admitted that they were gay.
That and neither Frank nor Kolbe have anything on Foley.
People were always talking about seeing Foley lurking in locker rooms around DC looking for sex, how he especially likes teenage boys, and frequents gay bars around D.C. and in his district.


THIRD EMAIL
From: repub intern
Mailed-By: hotmail.com
To: stopsexpredators@gmail.com
Date: Sep 18, 2006 2:07 PM
Subject: CONGRESSIONAL CORRUPTION!!!
Reply Reply to all Forward Print Add sender to Contacts list Delete this message Report phishing Show original Message text garbled?

My dad who gives a lot of money to republicans got me an internship capitolhill. I thought that I was hot shit, having such a good internship after myfreshman year of college.After a few weeks, I was finally learning my way around DC and I wasenjoying my job.One night, I decided to go out with my new fake ID to my first gay bar.I went to this bar named Coblot.There was old guy who would not leave me alone. He kept following me around.I tried to get him to leave me alone by going to the bathroom.Instead he followed me in and tried to grope me.A few days later my boss had me run something over to another congressmansoffice. It turned out that the guy who groped me was Representative MarkFoley.
posted by Stop Sex Predators at 6:25 AM

Instant Messages, Lingering Paper Trail
HP, Foley Cases Illustrate Risk
By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 6, 2006; A06
LINK

People who think their instant messages disappear after being sent should think again.

As the recent scandals involving former Republican congressman Mark Foley and Hewlett-Packard Co. have brought to light, text messages sent in real time via computer can be saved and retrieved.

Instant messaging has been growing in popularity, with nearly 79 million users of instant-messaging programs in the United States during August, according to research firm Nielsen-NetRatings. The most popular instant-message programs are from AOL, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. and can be used on computers and mobile gadgets such as cellphones and BlackBerrys.

Many people who take advantage of these free software services believe their conversations can't be tracked, but that's a misconception, said Michael Hall, managing editor of the Web site Instant Messaging Planet.

"Even the most basic instant-messaging software will keep some sort of archive," he said. "In the Foley case, I noticed there was a lot of carrying on in the right-wing blogosphere about the fact that these messages were recorded, [but] it's not odd. . . . Over the Net, you're never given any guarantees of real privacy."

Instant messages can be saved in a variety of ways. Most popular IM programs have built-in archiving features that can be turned on by anyone who uses them. Also, many companies and government agencies use special software that scans text-messaging traffic and makes copies of the text for storage on corporate or government computers.

It is not clear which IM program was used to save and retrieve Foley's sexually explicit chats with congressional pages. But Hall said he inspected screen shots of Foley's messages online and they appeared to have been captured using the standard archiving feature built into AOL's AIM software. AOL also has a business version of its messaging software, called AIM Pro, that archives messages on a user's hard drive by default.

Standard instant-message programs from AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft do not automatically save such IM chats, though users can, with a few clicks, set their messaging software to save personal copies of IM conversations on the hard drives of their computers.

Those programs do not store copies of the text messages on the computers of the user's Internet service provider, which makes them different from most e-mail services. Typically, e-mail messages are stored on the computer of the user's Internet access provider, such as EarthLink Inc. or Comcast Corp.

There is one major exception: Google Inc.'s instant-messaging service, called Google Talk, saves archives of chats on its servers by default, so that users can log on later and pull up old conversations. This is a feature that can be turned off by users.

Just over a third of employees use IM programs at work, according to research by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute.

Half of those employees use free programs such as AIM; the others use programs provided by their employers.

As instant messaging has caught on in workplaces, corporate technology departments are scrambling to make sure the technology isn't used for nefarious or compromising purposes. Increasingly, companies are buying special software to monitor and archive IM chats.

San Diego-based Akonix Systems Inc., for example, monitors the IM conversations of more than a million employees at more than 700 companies.

Akonix chief executive Peter Shaw said uptake for his company's monitoring product has been slower than IM adoption rates among employees.

But the recent attention provided by the Foley and HP scandals hasn't hurt. "Hits at our Web page have skyrocketed the last few days," he said.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

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