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Plenty Of Fallout From AOL "Screw Up"
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-08-08
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After leaving a sizable table of user search data online for several days, AOL removed it from the Internet; naturally, numerous sites mirrored the search data, while other sites have been delving into its contents.
 | | Plenty Of Fallout From AOL Screw Up |  |
Gaze long into the abyss, and the abyss gazes into you.
-- Nietzsche
Like watching sausages and laws being made, seeing the contents of some of the queries made by AOL searchers is not a pleasant experience. The contents of the mistakenly released AOL user search data have become fodder for plenty of site publishers and bloggers to explore.
AOL did apologize for the data being made available online in the first place. From a report by our Jason Lee Miller:
"This was a screw up, and we're angry and upset about it," (AOL) spokesperson Andrew Weinstein told WebProNews. "It was an innocent enough attempt to reach out to the academic community with new research tools, but it was obviously not appropriately vetted, and if it had been, it would have been stopped in an instant."
Lots of people agreed with the "screw up" assessment. TechCrunch called it "utter stupidity." Others were shocked while more referred to the release as a blatant violation of users' privacy.
The Consumerist website listed a few entries for some of the more disturbing entries found in the AOL data. The actual AOL usernames have been replaced with ID numbers, but some bloggers contend that people searching for references to themselves will be easily identified, while others may be identified by querying for information of personal importance.
One user, number 927, mixes searches for flowers and low carb calorie foods with queries for some seriously sick things related to children and animals.
Consumerist referred to another entry as one that could be for a "scatological murderer or niche-interest crime screenwriter." As the post said, "The possibilities are endless with the power of conjecture."
Lots of other websites have weighed in on the AOL data mess as well. We caution the curious that exploring the data or posts about the data may be less comfortable than you would like.
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Tag: AOL
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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