The AOL data leak

[Lazybones]

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/09/126237

Not sure if you heard or not, but AOL publicly posted a database of user search data that included user IDs not to long ago. It was up long enough that copies where made and now there is basically a permanent record on the net.

There is even a site that lets you search the data http://www.aolsearchdatabase.com/

There is some sick stuff in there base on some other comments I have seen. Anyone ever worry that Google will one day leak your search data?

For the most part it wouldn't bother me that much, but just think of this. If company recruiters use social sites like Facebook and MySpace to filter applicants now, how long before they try and check your search history?

[Darren Dirt]

Two words:

Cookiecleaner, Anonymizer.

Okay the first is kinda like two words, but you get what I'm saying.

Never do anything in your "real name" that might be frowned upon by your boss, mother, or member of your religious congregation

[Lazybones]

Cookiecleaner, Anonymizer.

Would be not do any good for AOL or Google as they are logged server side. However not searching for questionable stuff in the first place is always a good idea.

[Darren Dirt]

What exactly is logged, though? Some advertising tracking services found ways to "join" various domain cookies, and thus could form a "profile" of a surfer... And they got in serious heck for it from the EFF etc. Rightfully so. But for the most part, it's tough to take a cookieID and identify an actual living man/woman from that. Hence the common "privacy policy" on most major websites nowadays...


Also, what is "questionable" to one person is "important issues to research independently with an open mind" to another. Which is why the former typically resorts to name-calling of the latter rather than acknowledging the latter's right to learn what (s)he chooses to learn.

Examples include anti-government theory/suggestions being labelled as "unpatriotic" or "treasonous" or "unrealistic", or trying to find factual evidence for the 6-million # of the Nazi's Holocaust as "antisemitic" or "dishonouring the memory of the victims" etc. The truth should stand up to scrutiny, and shouldn't need censorship of opposing viewpoints since they are false and therefore will eventually collapse upon rational inspection... or so you'd think in a supposedly scientific-minded society. :-\

Sorry, off-topic a bit I think... Bottom line is quasi-anonymous profiles of my surfing history, my search history, are surely in the databases of Google, Yahoo, etc. but the question is, do they "have enough" to confirm ("beyond a reasonable doubt") that "I" am the same person who did those allegedly-heinous visitations?

[Lazybones]

Well if you have a Google account and use GMail potentially they could be tying your account to the time and words searched.. Looked at what can be inferred from some of the leaked AOL data you can learn some interesting thinks just by looking at the search data.

[Darren Dirt]

So are you saying I should remove my "Japanese schoolgirls" label from my Gmail account?

[Mr. Analog]

So are you saying I should remove my "Japanese schoolgirls" label from my Gmail account?

Great now the traffic on this thread will vastly increase.

hentai

[Darren Dirt]

Only if there's an actual LINK behind those key words.

MILTF (proper spelling )

[Darren Dirt]

Chinese female robot!

[Shayne]

Is it a leak if they posted it themselves?

[Lazybones]

Although they use and ID that is not matched to a screen name, I am sure based on some searches you could narrow it down a great deal.

If google where to release info like this, that included searches directed a local.google.com along with other searches you could probably figure out where I live as well as where I will be on a given Thursday as I ofen lookup the location of the ball park my team will play at.