Kopete/ICQ/About ICQ

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Revision as of 16:47, 3 January 2011 by Pbr (talk | contribs)
ICQ logo

ICQ is a proprietary instant messaging program, first developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis. It uses AOL's OSCAR network protocol for sending the text messages. To identify people, it uses a number, called UIN (Unified Identification Number). When you register an ICQ account, you also have to enter an e-mail address. Some ICQ clients support login with that e-mail address instead of your UIN (but not Kopete).

Features

  • Offline messages
  • multi user chat
  • file transfer

Features not yet supported by Kopete

  • games
  • sending SMS

Criticism

  • Privacy: according to the security analyst Jeffrey Carr, the russian secret service could gain access to chat protocols. For further information see here
  • Spam: there is a lot of spam (unwanted advertisement or viruses) in the ICQ network
  • Copyright: according to the ICQ Acceptable Use Policy, you allow ICQ to use posted material in any manner they want