AOL Searcher No. 4417749
- By: The Founder [privmsg - website] On 9th Aug 2006 In
It was easy to trace Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old widow just by her searches. Though her 'assigned Searcher No. 4417749', just by looking at the searches she made, it was pretty simple to figure out everything about her, down to the fact that her dog had a bladder problem and that she was looking for a landscaper to help around the house.
It get's scary when No. 2178 searches for “foods to avoid when breast feeding.”, instantly telling the search engine that she has a little baby at home, or when No. 7268042 types “fear that spouse contemplating cheating.”
This is a privacy violation of epic proportions, coupled with click tracking even from Google Talk, toolbars, scanning e-mails for ads.. this is not a technical issue if 'can they track' Google, Yahoo, MSN and just about every search engine knows your entire life. Today I might of made 100 or more searches for stuff.. every single one told Google more and more about me.
News Travels Fast...sometimes
I did a search for this thread title 2 hours ago. Gnews had two results. They now have four. G Results
Yahoo had 8 results, (6 of them relevant) and their blog search results. They're still showing 8 results (6 of them relevant).
Strangely, AOl search is currently showing more results than Google News. AOL's Results
They 'had hoped it would
They 'had hoped it would benefit academic researchers'? That's scary. Were they thinking at all when they released that information?
Scariest User Yet
http://consumerist.com/consumer/privacy/aol-user-927-illuminated-192502.php
pbs report
Well this fiasco just made "All Things Considered," where they got almost all the facts wrong. Their report stressed how the "accidental release" of the data somehow "made its way onto the internet."
I suppose they just couldn't conceive of it being done on purpose.