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The Face of One AOL Searcher Exposed

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the knew-it-wouldn't-take-long dept.

Juha-Matti Laurio writes "No. 4417749 conducted hundreds of searches over a three-month period on topics ranging from "numb fingers" to "60 single men" to "dog that urinates on everything., report NYT journalists Michael Barbaro and Tom Zeller Jr., but with a permission from Mrs. Thelma Arnold, 62. "Those are my searches," she said, after a reporter read part of the list to her, continues the article."

3 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing we can do! by mgblst · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Asked about Ms. Arnold, an AOL spokesman, Andrew Weinstein, reiterated the companys position that the data release was a mistake. We apologize specifically to her, he said. There is not a whole lot we can do.
     
    What a load... there is plenty you can do AOL. You can promise not to release this data again, you can actively hunt for it on the web. You can promise to delete your copy. You can promise that you won't keep data like this anymore. You can implement better security policies so that you know where your data is, and what is hapenning with it. You can limit the people who have access to posting stuff on your website.

    Useless bastards!

    1. Re:Nothing we can do! by rifter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The data is out there, what exactly could they do? Erase it from peoples hard drives, remove it from all the pipes that its in, drug everyone who has seen it?

      The fact they have this data is one thing, releasing it to the public is another.

      When it is data that they *care* about, corporations seem able to do plenty. If it's their source code, the code to decss, TimeWarnerAol's labels' mp3 files, the latest incriminating memos/emails ... they are positively rabid about protecting it. Cease and desist orders fall like rain, sites get shut down, people get sued for millions and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But if it's their customers' data, like these searches, their email addresses, their credit card numbers, etc. They just shrug and say "Oh well. What canya do?"

      It's typical, frustrating, and complete bullshit. If the privacy laws were enforced and these corporations were punished for such egregious mishandling of our data maybe then they might think they can do something. But unless it directly affects them, they just are not going to care and will continue to take no precautions.

  2. Re:Torpark by z0idberg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At the very least do your searching through an engine that is separate to your ISP.

    A customer of AOL searching through AOL has their searches linked to you as an individual. If you search through google then they get your IP address, and your ISP knows which IP address links to which individual at any one time (open Wifi networks aside). But at least the same company doesnt know both.

    The data AOL released was the equivalent of any other search engine releasing its searches with IP addresses, so the same damage could be done by any other search engines logs, but imagine how much a marketing company would pay for that info from AOL with the personal details for each user included (i.e. Age, Sex, location etc.).