It was reported earlier this week that AOL posted data on 20 million search queries from its customers for whoever wanted to download it. And download they did, as
this diary noted.
Searches initiated by AOL users, identified only by numbers, were out there for everyone to see. But it appears that not including a name didn't stop the New York Times from identifying who one of those AOL users is -- as Thelma Arnold of Lilburn, Ga., discovered:
Buried in a list of 20 million Web search queries collected by AOL and recently released on the Internet is user No. 4417749. The number was assigned by the company to protect the searcher's anonymity, but it was not much of a shield.
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."
And search by search, click by click, the identity of AOL user No. 4417749 became easier to discern. There are queries for "landscapers in Lilburn, Ga," several people with the last name Arnold and "homes sold in shadow lake subdivision gwinnett county georgia."
It did not take much investigating to follow that data trail to Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old widow who lives in Lilburn, Ga., frequently researches her friends' medical ailments and loves her three dogs. "Those are my searches," she said, after a reporter read part of the list to her.
Good thing for Ms. Arnold her searches didn't reveal anything more embarrassing than a dog that pisses on everything.
AOL apologized profusely and Thelma says she is not interested in suing their asses off, but the damage has been done, as this blog notes:
By now, members of the "plaintiffs' bar" are probably hounding Ms. Arnold while they furiously dig through the rest of AOL's data (which is still on the loose) to identify other members of "the class" which could land a large and substantive class action suit in AOL's lap.
And as this one notes:
One day, you might get a phone call from a reporter who knows more about you than your mother ever did. Not just facts that are publicly available, but the kind of pornography you like, the time you thought you might have AIDS, how you planned to dispose of the body of your spouse, and so on. And if you have ever searched for bomb-making instructions or child pornography or something similar, you can now worry about the fact that someone may well have kept a record ... Happily for [Thelma Arnold], she doesn't seem to have any skeletons in her closet -- she worries about the health of her three dogs, and her friends, and wondered when would be the best time to visit Italy.
But don't worry, AOL might compromise your identity, but your bank never will and VISA won't and the public library won't and, of course, the NSA will never release transcripts of your phone calls.
What's next? Is the tooth fairy going to start posting lists of kids who don't floss?