Thursday, August 10, 2006
John Battelle's Searchblog: NYT Finds An AOL Searcher:
"A very important piece of reporting, and a powerful reminder of the data corporations and the Govt. have access to.
NYT: A Face Is Exposed For AOL Searcher No. 4417749.
From it:
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.
I spoke with one of the authors, Tom Zeller, late yesterday, and when he told me they'd easily found this woman, I was, in an odd sense, thrilled. In a way, this advances one of my goals - the silver lining of a data leak like this is that it allows the culture to have a conversation about what we're getting into here by tracking all this data (the Times quotes me saying as much.) Kudos to the Times..."
"A very important piece of reporting, and a powerful reminder of the data corporations and the Govt. have access to.
NYT: A Face Is Exposed For AOL Searcher No. 4417749.
From it:
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.
I spoke with one of the authors, Tom Zeller, late yesterday, and when he told me they'd easily found this woman, I was, in an odd sense, thrilled. In a way, this advances one of my goals - the silver lining of a data leak like this is that it allows the culture to have a conversation about what we're getting into here by tracking all this data (the Times quotes me saying as much.) Kudos to the Times..."
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