From WiredNews:
AOL ‘s $658 Million Privacy Breach?
In a possible massive violation of federal privacy law, America Online released the logs of nearly 20 million web searches documenting three months of activity by 650,000 AOL users
on Sundayten days ago in an effort to share data with the search research community.Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Kevin Bankston considers the publication of the pseudonymized search logs to be a violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, arguing that the search terms are content under federal law and that the law doesn’t distinguish between identifiable and non-identifiable communications.
That law carries a minimum statutory damages of $1000 per person, which, if Bankston is right, would put AOL on the hook for $658 million minimum, even if it didn’t violate its own privacy policy.
“I think this is a massive violation of federal law and shows a shocking disregard for AOL users’ privacy,” Bankston said.
The story continues:
Queries in the logs range from the mundane “amy grant” to the possibly incriminating “buy ecstasy” or “free lolita pics” that could grab the attention of the police.
“This is also an incredible boon to law enforcement, who can, if it chooses use this as a basis for subpoenas,” Bankston said. “But we would argue that this is content and that if this is less than 180 days old it would require a search warrant.
This sort of data trove is exactly what Google fought the Justice Department in court over last year. Google largely won that case, and turned over only a small amount of data to the government. Other companies, including AOL, did not fight their subpoenas and turned over larger amounts of search data.
The writer gives advice on how to avoid search tracking:
So, once again, follow the advice of Adam Shostack: if there is something you want to search on or a site you want to visit which you wouldn’t want to have emblazoned on your T-shirt, take some steps to anonymize your web usage.
For some tips on how to do so, check out this Wired News How To Foil Search Engine Snoops story from last fall.