AOL Oops

[Dubh Aingeal]

"AOL has released the search logs of over 650,000 users for research purposes. This looks like it may become a public relations disaster for AOL, as well as a privacy nightmare for the users involved as Michael Arrington of TechCrunch notes: "AOL has released very private data about its users without their permission. While the AOL username has been changed to a random ID number, the ability to analyze all searches by a single user will often lead people to easily determine who the user is, and what they are up to. The data includes personal names, addresses, social security numbers and everything else someone might type into a search box."

AOL has since apologized for the oops which was only meant for the research site (and taken their direct link to the info down), but is a link to the cached information still out there, as well as at least one known mirror of the site still up and going.

[AstralCrux]

I'm convinced aol is evil, evil.

[Hellion]

:devil aol sux anyway,won't bother with them if I can help it.to me aol stands for "actually only lying"lol

[Rayne]

AOL is evil ... I know.

[kellygrrrrrl]

you know, I have NEVER used AOL.

Ever.

:laughing

[Marblez]

If you have used AOL even after all of the warnings and horror stories...well whatever info someone can figure out about you is your own damn fault.

Ok, thats rude. I really think it is a crappy thing that AOL did and they should be held accountable somehow.

[Dubh Aingeal]

More info on the oops:

"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."