A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749

[951-Riverside]

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.

AOL removed the search data from its site over the weekend and apologized for its release, saying it was an unauthorized move by a team that had hoped it would benefit academic researchers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html?ei=5090&en=f6f61949c6da4d38&ex=1312776000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

AOL Search Data Databases: http://www.aolstalker.com/ and http://www.aolsearchdatabase.com/
Raw Data: http://www.gregsadetsky.com/aol-data/
Her entire search records: http://www.aolstalker.com/user.php?uid=4417749 and http://needmyip.net/aolsearch/AnonID/4417749

[dave29]

1. despicable.

.

[AJ9000]

55. LAWSUIT

[MrCoffee]

2. I couldn't stop myself

I googled "dog that urinates on everything". http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=dog+that+urinates+on+everything&btnG=Google+Search

I need help. Seriously.

[Poll_Blind]

14. LOL! n/t

PB

[nosillies]

22. Thanks actually. I have a dog that urinates on everything.

I've been wanting to adopt him out. You might have just saved him. :D

[flyarm]

44. thanks! i just spit my coffee all over my key board laughing!!

:spray: :spray: :spray: :spray: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :spray: :spray: :spray:

fly

[Cobalt Violet]

33. And this was the first image that came up on the image search.

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=dog+that+urinates+on+everything&btnG=Search

[Theres-a]

38. BWAHAHAHAHA!

:rofl:

[nosillies]

45. I thought my dog was cute, but this might be more appealing to some people

Maybe if it was a package deal -- girl in bikini + cake + dog that urinates on everything, then I would have some takers.

I just did an image search for that whole bit, and there are no results (thank God). So I shortened it too bikini and chihuahua, since that's what type of dog I have, and found this.

[Cobalt Violet]

47. Too funny.

I love how she has triangles on most of her teats.

[Quantess]

48. So cute! (no text)

[KingFlorez]

3. That is crazy

What are they doing saving searches?

[ThomCat]

6. Every search engine saves a log of every search.

The federal government has been trying to get access to those logs at Google and Yahoo for quite some time now. I know Google was resisting. I don't know if they ended up turning anything over to the federal government's contractors.

[Recursion]

37. Analytics and performance

Two reasons, mainly

1: if you want to sell sponsored search results, you have to have hard data on what people are searching for
2: if you want decent performance, you need to cache common searches

[ThomCat]

4. These people should be fired, and never allowed to work

with personal data ever again. What morons would authorize this and not realize that searches might be personal enough to lead to the searcher?
:grr:

[AndyA]

5. This is why our privacy laws must be made stronger, and enforced with

more penalties. Big Brother is watching, and so are a lot of others. This is a disgrace!

[princehal]

7. BUT BUT

PEOPLE MIGHT SEACH FOR PRON!

[MrCoffee]

9. There's a record of all my "Santorum-on-Dog-Action" searches?

I can expect a knock on my door any day now.

[Breeze54]

13. Well, then I'm really in trouble

I often search for "FUCK BUSH!" :rofl:

[ThomCat]

8. Absolutely. I have long thought that we need a Privacy

amendment to expand our right against unreasonable searchs. Data about us should be required by law to be private and protected.

[MrCoffee]

11. The "shadows and penumbras" aren't good enough for you?

[ThomCat]

15. No. There are too many agencies shining spot lights.

[ikojo]

52. Privacy laws, like HIPAA, are difficult to enforce

with so much personal data being managed overseas.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bonobo]

19. Good phrase. "Sued into Oblivion". I wholeheartedly agree.

Welcome to DU Goose Hunter!

:toast:

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tight_rope]

40. I agree with you 100%. Had AOL for 3 yrs....they are crooks!

[Poll_Blind]

12. Someone posted it to alt.binaries.x in full (400M) yesterday. n/t

PB

[951-Riverside]

16. ...Too much work when you can download it off several sites.

http://www.gregsadetsky.com/aol-data/

I posted this link in my original post along with another link.

[readmoreoften]

57. I'm confused, what exactly would we be downloading?

Sorry I'm a geek. Or I should say a non-geek.

[Amonester]

17. Geez! Just who in their right mind would still want to pay these...

idiots (much too greedy lawless corpo-programmers) each month for them to 'sneak' on their private searches?

AOL/TW: Talk about "succesful" business 'deciders'...

[Whoa_Nelly]

18. So how soon comes the class action suit against AOL?

I finally got off my lazy Internet butt and canceled AOL yesterday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=5476207&mesg_id=5476207

[Gormy Cuss]

20. I hope that thousands of AOL subscribers do the same.

Next up, can some party (hint hint) please make better privacy laws a part of their platform?

[MichaelHarris]

21. Kinky GMILF

numb fingers? 60 men? Dog urine? She's got her super freak going.

[MrCoffee]

25. Does anyone else think this lady ROCKS?!

“Those are my searches,” she said, after a reporter read part of the list to her.
Hell yes they were. Numb fingers, 60 single men, and dog urine! Go on with your bad self!

[MichaelHarris]

27. I bet she wears thongs

She's got the whole groove monkey thing going on.

[951-Riverside]

28. Shoo shoo shooo!

If you're into older woman fiiiine but don't poo poo my thread, Thank You! :P

[MichaelHarris]

30. did he wee wee?

That Pabst Blue Ribbon will make you wet yourself everytime.

[MrCoffee]

31. PBR

:beer:
:silly:
:puke:
:hangover:
:hurts:

[MichaelHarris]

32. hahahahahahahahahahaaa

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

36. Part of the NSA defense about the illegal searches is that

they are "anonymous". This case proves that anonymity is not the same as privacy. Anonymity is no protection from prying eyes, whether the eyes belong to AOL, or NSA.

[Theres-a]

39. See post 33

:wow:

[valerief]

23. I wonder why they save the searches. n/t

[951-Riverside]

26. I'll ask right now

Edit: on the phone right now... "Question: Why do you retain detailed search information on AOL customers?"

Rough transcript I typed it as I was speaking to this person note that this is not the entire conversation I picked out key parts also I did not record the call.

Answer: That is a good question, I'm looking that up now i see the article here. Uhhh are you refering to the times article user #44177.... i think it was... let me see here... I really don't know the answer to that... i don't know the article. You can write to our cooperate offices because I don't think I'm at liberty to discuss this.

[valerief]

43. Okay, okay. Stupid question. Because they can. And the

gummint pays for it.

[uncle ray]

29. i got a solution

too bad i can't implement it!

someone needs to write a program to make your computer constantly search for all sorts of random stuff. that way, their database of searched items by each user will be huge, and yield no useful information.

[Amonester]

34. "huge, and yield no useful information"

"their database of searched items by each user"
already is, obviously, and how many millions
off of the taxpayers' credit card is actually being
wasted on it? Who will pay for this "other" waste
(and constitutionally illegal "handling" of private
information)?

And for What?

[Dogmudgeon]

35. It's been done

I don't know the name(s) of the program(s), but such "bot spoofers" have been around for some years. They tend to be hacker programs, though. We really need a nice, robust, easy-to-use, Open Source project to feed noise into these engines -- not so much to punish their companies as to reduce the risk we face by simply using the Internet.

Some legislation with backbone would help, too. Chris Smith, a Republican, of all things, has proposed some legislation to help this process along; he was outraged by MSN, Google, and Yahoo offering to spy for China. He has the right idea; I hope one of OUR guys has the stones to sponsor similar legislation or go in with Smith.

--p!

[BadgerKid]

41. It wouldn't be too difficult

to do. Think about those buzzword generator web sites. Instead, pull five words at random from an online dictionary and then perform the search using ${PREFERED_SEARCH_ENGINE}. The method could be implemented on a standalone we site, in a script on your ${BLOG} page, or perhaps running on your own PC.

[ramapo]

42. Scary

I read a lot of scary items each day. This one is near the top.

[zreosumgame]

46. back in the olden days...

a company called Berkeley Geoworks put out an alternative to Windos 3.1 called Ensemble which included a free AOL account. As soon as that account ran out i never renewed it. AOL sucks, and always has. Steve Case is a total jackass, and even after he left AOL still kept running it his way.

[Poll_Blind]

49. Some more examples of how bad this is in this thread (see inside)...

Here.

PB

[zreosumgame]

50. please, please Thelma

sue Time/Warners ass into the ground. Do America and the Constitution a favor

[Trillo]

51. Big Brother knows EVERYTHING about any of us

who use the Internet?

I really love my computers and Internet access, it's one of the few things that helps me to learn new things.

BUT, maybe it's time to get off this 'spying network.'

[ThsMchneKilsFascists]

54. maybe that's one of the goals of this program,...

to put a chill on internet political advocacy?

[Trillo]

58. I agree.

I've even written on my blog that my assumption was that the government knew everything I did and think, that I have no secrets. I think I was experiencing a melancholic moment of doubt when I wrote the above post.

If government cannot be completely transparent, then asking citizens to be completely transparent to any entity is inherently unfair and unreasonable, certainly so given the 4th Amendment.

When Internet packets are travelling through routers, the packet contents are disposed of after so many milliseconds. There is no reason why the search engines couldn't also dispose of these results in a similar manner, except the one notable exception that search engine companies might have a legitimate use for some search data to improve search results. However, the risks to citizens' privacy may outweigh the third-party benefits to collect this data.

I also believe that in our new 'ownership society', given that this is the 'information age', for citizens to realize their 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable searches without warrants, citizens must be granted legal ownership over all of their information, to extend even to derived information about them. Then, citizens can contract with others to sell this data if they choose.

Corporate seems to do no less for themselves. Corporate seems to currently have ownership over citizens' data.

[skids]

53. I bet a lot of Republican Party bigwigs have AOL accounts.

Just sayin.

[TreeOfLiberty]

56. try this

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm