AOL Proudly Releases Massive Amounts of Private Data (Astounding)

[Renew Deal]

<snip>

AOL must have missed the uproar over the DOJ’s demand for “anonymized” search data last year that caused all sorts of pain for Microsoft and Google. That’s the only way to explain their release of data that includes 20 million web queries from 650,000 AOL users.

The data includes all searches from those users for a three month period this year, as well as whether they clicked on a result, what that result was and where it appeared on the result page. It’s a 439 MB compressed download, expanded to just over 2 gigs. The data is available here (this link is directly to the file) and the output is in ten text files, tab delineated.

The utter stupidity of this is staggering. 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 abilitiy 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.

The most serious problem is the fact that many people often search on their own name, or those of their friends and family, to see what information is available about them on the net. Combine these ego searches with porn queries and you have a serious embarrassment. Combine them with “buy ecstasy” and you have evidence of a crime. Combine it with an address, social security number, etc., and you have an identity theft waiting to happen. The possibilities are endless.
<snip>

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/06/aol-proudly-releases-massive-amounts-of-user-search-data

AOL Search Data Shows Users Planning to commit Murder.

http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/2006/08/07/aol-search-data-shows-users-planning-to-commit-murder/

[Robbien]

1. Okay. Why did AOL do this?

I really do not understand the motivation.

What does AOL gain?

[muryan]

3. Some form of publicity

Aol has absolutely no use whatsoever. Their customer base is shrinking very quickly and they are using this to kind of say "hey we are still around overcharging you out the ass." Maybe some right wing fundies will switch over because aol is doing such a great thing and they have 'nothing to hide'

[Renew Deal]

5. It was for academic purposes.

It was being given to students for research.

[Robbien]

6. So not a public release, just some researcher

releasing it which the media happened to pick up?

Does AOL still believe they are working in a bubble which they control? What idiots.

[Kelvin Mace]

15. Sucking up to BushCo

[Supersedeas]

37. Believers in Dimson give it all away--everything.

[Richard Steele]

2. So, how will AOL users feel, knowing that EVERYONE now has their data?

There's a dozen mirrors to download the file from HERE:
http://www.gregsadetsky.com/aol-data/

[AngryOldDem]

31. Speaking for myself...

...I feel damned violated.

[Xithras]

4. Google used to have a feature....

I don't know if they still do, but Google used to have a feature that let you see what other people were searching for in near real-time. I personally never had a problem with it, but it did NOT permit the cross-referencing of searches by user. There's a big difference between showing the types of things that people look for, and allowing a lookup of a specific persons search patterns.

[MrPrax]

16. Google Trends?

http://www.google.com/trends

As they say: "See what the world is searching for."

Is that it or are you thinking of a subscriber service?

[Xithras]

20. Yeah, that's it. (Nope, nevermind, that's not it)

I remember back when that feature first became well known. Lots of people were upset about the "privacy violation" until it was pointed out that there was no way to cross reference searches to people. If AOL wanted to release their searches the same way, I wouldn't have a problem with it. The way they have done so, however, is not only stupid, it's an invasion of privacy.

On edit: Doh! next time I need to look a little closer. That is NOT the page I was thinking of. Google used to have a page that showed the actual searches that people had typed in...the last twenty or something like that. You could keep hitting reload on the page and actually see what people were searching for in real time.

[MrPrax]

21. Yup...

Google used to be a real good search engine.

[Up2Late]

7. Oh Great! Maybe this is why I just had to cancel my Visa Card because...

...someone was trying to access my account last month.

Way to go AOL! :argh:

[Trillo]

8. I'm looking at the "planning to commit Murder" assumption

About assumptions, here are some of mine: It could be a fundamentalist looking for 'filth' on the Internet. I think the police very well may make such investigative searches. The Executive Branch might want to know how many photos of decapitated heads are easy to find, since they seem to want to control and micromanage even the smallest speck of dirt on a floor. And lets not forget the agent provocateur, who deliberately creates a problem, so that a solution is taken to remove rights. Maybe the user behind the number is a Neo-Con party operative, making it look like there's a need for them to have access to this data. Or perhaps it's an foreign agent, trying to screw with the Bill of Rights.

[peacetalksforall]

13. "Or perhaps it's an foreign agent, trying to screw with the Bill of

Rights."

??? Doesn't need to be foreign ... to screw with our Bill of Rights? Right?

[Trillo]

14. The danger is in making assumptions n/t

[951-Riverside]

9. Originally posted by me yesterday in GD

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1836722

[Overseas]

10. Keep it on the top story list. kick kick .... NT

[BadgerKid]

11. Interested countries (via bittorrent)

The current list anyway: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, EU, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Isreal, Italy, Malaysia, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, US.

[peacetalksforall]

12. If AOL thinks so little of its users, how many others? Time-Warner Cable?

[rainbow4321]

26. Hope not..Time Warner just took over Comcast.

at least in the Dallas area...making it my new broadband provider.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. So if you were John Q Public and you had an aol account

And you search your own name and then you search your Poster name to see what's out there, then you search real estate stuff, and then you search your boss, and then you search some porn, and then you search your company, and then you search want ads, it would be really easy to put all this together and figure out who was doing the searches.

Who did they release the searches to? Was it AOL searches only, or did it invovle Google and other search engines too? This is ASTOUNDING and should be one the front page. What a violation of security and privacy. AOL is probably done after this.

[Doctor Venmkan]

18. I used to have aoHELL.....

VERY glad it was years ago!!! VERY aggressive and pushy with the marketing and not wanting to let you cancel....

[customerserviceguy]

28. Back in Utah

I used to do taxes for people at H & R Block (it was the only place that would hire a non-Mormon) and I heard stories from some of my clients who worked for their Ogden office, that would get bonuses for keeping people on AOHell, even if they had to give free months for it. I have absolutely no doubt that the information that has just been released freely has always been available for a price, and probably with more detailed information.

American business just views the Internet as another ring stuck in our noses, by which they can lead us around.

[bobthedrummer]

19. There is no more privacy-the data thefts that are being reported

are staggering.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/Datathefts.php

[darkism]

22. Mirrors for the curious:

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

[index555]

23. AOL=

:puke:
need I say more?

[customerserviceguy]

29. I think

you have the wrong end depicted...

[evox]

24. Hmm so I'm assuming that AOL also

keeps track of all the AIM logs of every single Screen Name out there. So now we're talking about petabytes and exabytes of data.

[Occulus]

25. AOL severely dumbed down the internet.

A whole bunch of people suddenly came online expecting the internet to be 'easy', and it wasn't.

They bitched severely, and all the techie stuff was removed by the ISPs to make it easier for tech-challenged initiates to use.

The end result: we lost shell accounts, FTP access, Gopher died, and Usenet is almost invisible- all because "they're too hard to use!"

Well, guess what? RTFM.

HAH!

[Renew Deal]

34. lol

I agree that AOL made the internet to use. Most AOL users thought AOL was the internet. But a lot of that has since subsided. That's partly why AOL was fading away.

[JackDragna]

27. I'm getting my parents to quit AOL.

I don't care how used to it they are. This is despicable.

[Renew Deal]

35. It's free now.

So they don't have to quit, but I understand what you're saying.

[Zhade]

30. That second link...

17556639 how to kill your wife
17556639 how to kill your wife
17556639 wife killer
17556639 how to kill a wife
17556639 poop
17556639 dead people
17556639 pictures of dead people
17556639 killed people
17556639 dead pictures
17556639 dead pictures
17556639 dead pictures
17556639 murder photo
17556639 steak and cheese
17556639 photo of death
17556639 photo of death
17556639 death
17556639 dead people photos
17556639 photo of dead people
17556639 www.murderdpeople.com
17556639 decapatated photos
17556639 decapatated photos
17556639 car crashes3
17556639 car crashes3
17556639 car crash photo

Apparently, people planning murder and surfing for pics of the dead get hungry for cheesesteaks.

Sorry, that was just plain weird to me.

[Evergreen Emerald]

32. maybe they are researching for a book n/t

[Tight_rope]

38. LMBAO....Too funny...but scary. Glad I'm not married!

[Quantess]

40. Extremely weird.

Still, it's a leap to assume he's planning murder.

We can assume he is fascinated with death and murder, but that doesn't necessarily mean he wants to kill anyone. Shows like The New Detectives and Cold Case Files are popular with non-murderous people. Rotten.com shows plenty of shock-value, gross-out, corpse photos for people who want to see that stuff.

Granted, the person is bound to be creepy and weird, but being creepy isn't a crime.

[Barkley]

33. A.O.L. = Americans On Line - eom

[rudy23]

36. Intentional leak meant to scare soccer moms into favoring warrantless

searches on as much information as possible.

They'll try and make this a huge story (AOL accidentally released customer information, and look how many women we can save if we just troll for suspects), draft a new bill, and try to frame Dems as soft on terror. Maybe this is even a direct response to the new poll numbers showing that Americans trust Democrats more on terrorism.

My tin foil hat is worn out.

[Poll_Blind]

39. Some more information about how bad this is (see link inside)

Here.

PB