Yup, AOL have surely done it this time.
They decided to release about 20 million searches to the public for "research reasons" - hoping that writers would cite them as the reference.
This complete display of ignorance has backfired, and they've received quite a bit of criticism - and there's a lot coming.
The data includes a unique user ID#. Whilst this is a random number, an individual users' search can be seperated from another. Because many people search for their own name, their family name, their own business or road name etc, many users are personally IDable.
This of course opens up the gates to fraud and blackmail. Ah, not to mention an arrest if you're user #17556639.
View the story here.
Last edited by Harvey; 08-07-2006 at 01:22 PM..
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