AOL has been in boiling-hot water lately over the intentional release of three months of search queries by 658,000 AOL users. Even though, after being called on the carpet, AOL grudgingly removed the data from its website, the damage has been done, and the data has now spread across the entire Internet. It appears that AOL has violated, not only its own privacy policy, but the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), as well.
If you’re wondering, “What’s the big deal?” consider this quote from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: “Would you want your employer or credit company knowing that you searched for “how to file for bankruptcy”? Would you want anyone to know you searched for “HIV positive clinic,” “breast cancer health services,” or another illness-related query? What about “rape victim” or “depression” plus “counseling”? What about searches that reference your political or religious affiliation, or your sexual orientation?” Researchers have shown that the now-widespread data can be linked back to individual AOL users. Sensitive, personal data like this, provided by companies such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, has been used to throw political dissidents into communist Chinese prisons.
Someone contacted me not long ago, and I finally got around to replying to their email. Unfortunately, they had changed email addresses, so my email to them bounced back as undeliverable. As I knew their name and city of residence, I turned to trusty old Switchboard.com. Soon, I had their telephone number, mailing address, and even a map with driving directions to their home. I made a phone call, and everything was sorted out.
I started thinking, though, about how much personal information is on the Internet. So, I did a search for myself on Swithboard.com. Over the years, I’ve tried to fly under the Internet radar, so I wasn’t listed. I did learn, however, that there’s someone else in Norman named David Moore. I’m probably listed elsewhere.
I then searched for friends, business associates and popular Normanites, using some other websites, as well (do a Google search for, “find people,” it’s amazing). Some people had covered their tracks. With other folks, I could easily find out, not only their address and phone number, but their age, middle initial, spouses name, children’s names, addresses and phone numbers of neighbors, previous residences, email address, whether or not their telephone was a cell phone or land line, and the name of the phone provider, all without spending a dime! Had I wanted to spend some money, I could have also run a background check, pulled up government records, viewed real estate appraisals, and much more.
One website had a link to “Yahoo Personals,” where you can search your local area, so I decided to see what kind of information people voluntarily give out for the world to see. Was I ever surprised to see photos and deeply personal information, sometimes from people that I recognized as former customers! Come on, people, I taught you better than that!