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AOL Releases Search Logs of 657,427 Users

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the give-or-take dept.

An anonymous reader writes "AOL has released the search logs of over 650,000 users for research purposes. This looks like it may become a public relations disaster for AOL, as well as a privacy nightmare for the users involved as Michael Arrington of TechCrunch notes: "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 ability 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." This is also being covered on The Paradigm Shift and Oh My News." fantomas adds " Looks like they've just taken it down but it's still available on The Pirate Bay; not sure why but some of the academic researchers are going crazy musing the ethical aspects of letting the world know who's searching for how to kill their wives ..." Update: 08/07 21:32 GMT by T : amromousa writes "AOL is now apologizing for the release ..., calling it a "screw-up," which they're upset and angry about."

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  1. AOL Goes After Dead People Too by chromozone · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    AOL was just in the news over the weekend in an article about a woman who can't get AOL to cancel her dead fathers account. What an awful company. Lets not forget AOL was also the company that had the employee who sold a few hundred thousand credit card numbers. I don't think I would even use the free stuff they are now advertising. They probably have rootkits at the ready - easily detectable ones at that - just to really implode in grand style.

      As the Marquis de Talleyrand said after losing a chess game. ""It is worse than a crime, it is a blunder!"

    Even dead people can't escape AOL

    By David Sheets
    ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
    08/04/2006

    Maxine Gauthier doesn't own a computer. She doesn't know the first thing about Web browsing or sending e-mail. She's not even sure where to find a computer's "on" button, as she describes it.

    Yet for the past nine months, she has been fighting one of the most persistent and some say irritating institutions in cyberspace: AOL, formerly known as America Online.

    "They just haven't wanted to let go," the 55-year-old St. Louisan said. "I don't think they'll ever really let go."

    The problem? An AOL account once held by Gauthier's late father still showed billing charges accumulating against it. The account had been dormant for months; the credit card he used for it was inactive at least as long.

    Nevertheless, AOL kept charging $25.90 each month for dial-up online access. Late fees for non-payment accumulated on the credit card, too.

    http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/columnis ts.nsf/techtalk/story/A0F7FD49EFA6565A862571BF006C 005A?OpenDocument