AOL's disturbing glimpse into users' lives

Cnet ^ | 08/07/2006 | Declan McCullagh

[muawiyah]

Yes, it doesn't look like you are writing a book # 73842

[fishbabe]

Thats how the libs will track down all the right wingers and put them in re-education camps,just like the China gov't does now....

[Bones75]

Okay, Im curious... anyone have a link to a mirror site where this data can be viewed? PM would be cool if you don't want to make it public.

[Tall_Texan]

Try to infer what somebody's up to by what's in their shopping cart:

Green beans
Canned tomatoes
Tampax
100-watt light bulbs
A pack of AA batteries
A plumber's helper
Motrin IB

The point being that a list of searches doesn't necessarily add up to what the person was interested in doing.

[OneWingedShark]

"Thats how the libs will track down all the right wingers and put them in re-education camps,just like the China gov't does now...."

No, no, no. You've got to wait until America is completely controlled by mega-corparations, then there will be an America-China merger...

[ShadowAce]

[I'm ALL Right!]

Sounds like a serial killer

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Sounds like a swell guy - OJ perhaps?

[Vinnie]

A vegan lesbian having her period.

She is planning on filming her encounter with her girlfriend.

[TET1968]

Time Warner runs AOL.
Dick Parsons, runs Time Warner
This is about Dick Parsons not AOL.

[Tall_Texan]

I was honestly just listing things off the top of my head. If I had *wanted* to give a provocative list, I would have spent more than a few minutes coming up with a list.

I suppose I should have included a turkey baster.

[Dont Mention the War]

Here's a page of nothing but links to copies of the AOL data:

http://www.gregsadetsky.com/aol-data/

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Amazing what kind of "sickness" - morbid fascination - there is in people. I don't get it, myself.

[mysterio]

AOL should be sued out of existance for this one. The article lists specific users' towns, vehicles owned, and what they looked for. Enough to easily identify someone.

[antiRepublicrat]

Increasingly, it's hard to do a google search on some topics without worrying about something like this happening.

Except that Google fought like hell to even keep this information out of the government's hands. Yahoo I don't trust, or MSN.

[antiRepublicrat]

Therefore, it was either stupid or deceptive to open the piece by calling it "one of the year's bigger privacy scandals."

Read on. The point of the article is that despite using only an ID number, it's fairly easy to find out who they are due to what they've searched for.

[antiRepublicrat]

Performance oil filters?

I know, not much sense on a Scion. To further this, he's probably a rice boy and has a stupidly tricked-out car. Shouldn't be too hard to track him down.

[JamesP81]

Except that Google fought like hell to even keep this information out of the government's hands. Yahoo I don't trust, or MSN.

Fortunately, google is what I use. I don't like how they've behaved towards China and Chinese dissidents, but they were right on that one.

Personally, I think there should be a law prohibiting keeping a database linking IP addresses to search terms. Maybe I should run for office on that platform.

[Redcloak]

I wonder what Pissant's ID number is.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Maybe you should! At the US House level!