misunderestimation

AOL has made a mistake, they have released 3 months of search information:

AOL, the fourth Internet search giant after Google, Yahoo and MSN, has publicly admitted the embarrassment of releasing private information about 658,000 of its customers, compromising their privacy.

The data is about the searches made by 658,000 AOL members between March and May 2006. Apparently, without authorization, a staff member from AOL posted on the Internet millions of search words used during the three month period, but with a positive purpose. He tried to offer to the research community the possibility to create a better tool for search engines, by studying the patterns present in the data offered about AOL clients.

Remember, whatever you enter in search engines, the pages you browse on the Internet, and the communications you send are all stored somewhere for some period of time. The Houston Chronicle has a good example:

For example, many users type their names to find out whether sites have dirt on them and then separately search for online mentions of their phone, credit card or Social Security numbers. A few days later, they may search for pizzerias in their neighborhoods, revealing their locations, or for prescription drug prices, revealing their medical conditions. All those separate searches would be linked to the same numeric ID.

“Search query data can contain the sum total of our work, interests, associations, desires, dreams, fantasies and even darkest fears,” said Lauren Weinstein, a privacy advocate.

Yikes. Many AOL users should be afraid, very afraid. The The New York Times says:

But the unintended consequences of all that data being compiled, stored and cross-linked are what Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy-rights group in Washington, called “a ticking privacy time bomb.”

The shock wave from this is going to be felt far and wide. The blog world is all-over this issue. After-all, AOL does not have the best name in the business lately. Remember the video from the guy who tried to unsubscribe to AOL?

Also blogging:

• AOL user’s searches identify her
• AOL Search Log Profiles Unmasked
• The Released AOL Search Results
• A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749
• Thelma Arnold of Lilburn, Georgia — Come On Down!
• Searcher Identified From Released AOL Search Data
• The NY Times puts a face on one of AOL’s victims
• Know AOL Search Queries, Know Thyself

More misunderestimation