AOL Treads on Privacy

AOL doesn't care about its users' privacy.

Perhaps Russ Feingold should consider introducing a resolution to censure AOL for its role in releasing personal information on its users without their permission.

Of course, that would make no sense, but it would be in line with Feingold's previous impotent censure efforts.

The substance isn't the point. It would mean national publicity, a magnet for Feingold.

Of course, Feingold thinks that some of President Bush's counterterrorism efforts, what he and other Lefties call "domestic spying," rise to the level of impeachable offenses.

Although AOL's move isn't "spying," I guess you could call it "domestic revealing."

Where's the outrage, Russ?

I've said it before. Rather than freaking out about the government, people should be aware that private corporations are as likely or more likely to be prying into their personal lives than the government is.

Some people (Feingold and his like-minded loony lib buddies) got so bent out of shape over the government trying to find patterns in communications that might indicate terrorist activity. Such leads could be investigated, and possibly uncovered, and then used to thwart plans for a terrorist attack.

Surely Feingold will go nuts over this one, from Techcrunch:

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.

Will Senators demand an immediate investigation into AOL's disregard for the civil liberties of its users?

Come on, Russ, do something.

You know nothing major will come of this. It will be a minor story in the lib media. However, if the Bush administration had something to do with it, then that would be an entirely different matter. It would be considered misconduct worthy of intense scrutiny. It would be a major obsession.

The real issue with Feingold and his "the sky is falling" allies isn't privacy concerns and civil liberties; it's attacking Bush for their own personal political gain.