I couldn’t disagree more with this guy:

Russ Cooper, a security expert with TruSecure Corp., said anyone who needs the Windows messaging function that AOL disabled ought to be smart enough to know how to reactivate it.
“I hope more and more providers do this type of proactive security,” he said, “and that we don’t condemn them for things we wish everybody would do for themselves.”

He is talking about AOL which has made changes to the system settings of more then 15,000,000 of their user’s Microsoft Window based systems without those users prior consent.

Even more annoying than junk e-mail are all the spam messages that “pop up” through a little-used feature in Windows. As part of its spam-fighting efforts, America Online has been turning off that feature for its customers without telling them.

Cooper is right in his first sentence but that is not the issue.
Sure, this sounds like a good thing on the surface. But think about it. Aol has made a change to the PC’s system environment without the owner’s permission. This apparently requires that the user has administrator privileges on the computer, typical for most home users, so this means that via their client software, AOL version whatever it is today, they can probably do anything they want with your computer without your permission.
Even though I consider AOL the king of snail mail spam I’ve rooted for them from time to time in their battles against Microsoft. This, though, strikes me as a pretty good reason for folks to find another service provider.
Can you trust AOL with your computer?