The Face of One AOL Searcher Exposed

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."

Comments

Technology in the NY Times

[MobyDisk]

I found this interesting:

Next Article in Technology (1 of 27)

The NY times considers this an article on technology. Slashdot considers this an article on "Your Rights Online." That is the reason nothing will happen no matter how many times these privacy violations occur. People don't act on technology issues. They act on privacy, religion, and entertainment. I would shame the NY times that they still don't get it, but neither does most of the rest of the planet either.

How to achieve change

[RagingFuryBlack]

After reading through all of the 0+ modded comments, I've seen everyone saying "God, I wish there was something that could be done to stop this from happening again". You want to see it stop? Find something that ties your local congressmen to their search histories on AOL. Contact them with that information. I can almost guarantee you that if you find enough dirt on enough congressmen/senators, you'll see legislation passed requiring that Search companies not keep records of searches. It quickly changes from "Think of the children" to "Think of saving my ass from dirt that can be used against me next election year"