Privacy Nightmare for Users as AOL releases search records of 650,000 members

[mandy]

AOL must have missed the uproar over the DOJ’s demand for “anonymized” search data last year that caused all sorts of pain for Microsoft and Google. That’s the only way to explain their release of data that includes 20 million web queries from 650,000 AOL users.

The data includes all searches from those users for a three month period this year, as well as whether they clicked on a result, what that result was...

The utter stupidity of this is staggering. AOL has released very private data about its users without their permission. While the AOL username has been changed to a random ID number, the abilitiy to analyze all searches by a single user will often lead people to easily determine who the user is, and what they are up to. The data includes personal names, addresses, social security numbers and everything else someone might type into a search box...

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/06/aol...arch-data/

[mandy]

EFF has filed an FTC complaint against AOL alleging AOL violated its users privacy rights when it released the search data

REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION AND
COMPLAINT FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (“EFF”), having reason to believe that AOL LLC
(“AOL”) has violated the Federal Trade Commission Act, and that investigation and injunctive
relief is in the public interest, alleges that AOL committed unfair and deceptive trade practices
by intentionally and publicly disclosing Internet search histories of more than half a million AOL
users. Press reports, the analysis of commentators, and EFF’s own research show that these data
include sensitive, personal information that can be linked to individuals...

AOL’s Disclosure of 20 Million Consumer Search Records

8. On August 7, 2006, media organizations reported that AOL had publicly disclosed
roughly 20 million search queries typed into the AOL client software by
approximately 658,000 AOL users during March, April and May 2006.7 The data,
posted as a 440-megabyte downloadable file named 500Kusers.tgz, were publicly
available on the web site http://research.aol.com for ten days before AOL removed
it.

9. The news reports indicate that the personal data AOL disclosed included search
queries revealing names, addresses, local landmarks, and medical ailments.9
Hundreds of the search queries also included such personal information as credit card
numbers and Social Security numbers, the disclosure of which may facilitate identity
theft. 10 The disclosure also made public extremely sensitive search queries such as
“how to tell your family you’re a victim of incest,” “surgical help for depression,”
“how to kill your wife,” “men that use emotional and physical abandonment to
control their partner,” “suicide by natural gas,” “how to make someone hurt for the
pain they caused someone else,” “revenge for a cheating spouse,” “will I be
extradited from ny to fl on a dui charge,” and “my baby’s father physically abuse me.”
11 The data did not directly link consumers’ names or AOL screen names to their
searches. However, each individual user’s search queries during the three-month
period were linked to a single unique identification number, creating a complete
search history for each user. 12 The data also contained, inter alia, the domain names
of all web pages that the consumers visited as a result of their searches, and the time
and date of each search.

10. In addition to the search history data, AOL posted a description of the data set on
http://research.aol.com, which included the following disclaimer:
CAVEAT EMPTOR—SEXUALLY EXPLICIT DATA! Please be
aware that these queries are not filtered to remove any content.
Pornography is prevalent on the Web and unfiltered search engine logs
contain queries by users who are looking for pornographic material.
There are queries in this collection that use SEXUALLY EXPLICIT
LANGUAGE. This collection of data is intended for use by mature
adults who are not easily offended by the use of pornographic search
terms. If you are offended by sexually explicit language you should
not read through this data. Also be aware that in some states it may be
illegal to expose a minor to this data. Please understand that the data
represents REAL WORLD USERS, un-edited and randomly sampled,
and that AOL is not the author of this data.14

Full copy of complaint filing: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/AOL/aol_ftc_c..._final.pdf

[mandy]

Update: some AOL staffers are now unemployed as a result of this fiasco

AOL chief technology officer Maureen Govern, who oversaw the division responsible for accidentally releasing search data for more than a half a millions internet users, has resigned from the company, according to an internal company memorandum.

John McKinley, AOL's former CTO, will take over on an interim basis, according to the memo obtained by Reuters on Monday. Govern joined the company last September.

AOL declined comment...

full article: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,7...wn_index_5

[BellisimaJ.]

Do these companies never learn? What a bunch of bloody  :asshat2:
                      idiots!

[Anita]

Because hubby is a vet, his info has been possibly compromised.
Because I use AOL for e-mail... my info has possibly been compromised.
Because I use the Internet, NOTHING is a secret.

I may as well post naked pictures of myself. 

[BellisimaJ.]

I may as well post naked pictures of myself.  Wink

:popcorneaters: