So, I have a question that I'm guessing you guys would be able to answer. For years I've avoided Jabber to IM services simply for two reasons. One, the jabber server will now have my IM password for which ever services I use (yahoo, MSN, etc), and that its now in the position to sniff all of my traffic as well. Now I realize that when I'm sitting in a coffee shop on wifi said sniffing can occur. But it always bothered and greatly concerned me to have a jabber server in the middle like that. I've done security for a long time and never imagined inviting someone to be the 'man in the middle' attack.

I also realize that all of the major services probably keep logs of all the chats as well. But still, it just seems a bad idea to readily give up my passwords to something like this. Or am I missing the point?