On August 6th 2006, American Online (AOL) took it upon themselves to release to the public domain an archive of their customers search habits over a period of 3 months.
Contained in this list were social security numbers, credit cards and other personal information. The list also revealed some frightening findings.
User 17556639 is constantly trying to find ways to murder his wife. This is as bad as the guy who murdered that Oklahoma girl and blogged about his plans to eat her. Sad really sad.
The fact that this data has been made to the public could result in not only embarrassment, but identity theft just waiting to happen.
Michael Arrington, from TechCrunch.Com says “The most serious problem is the fact that many people often search on their own name, or those of their friends and family, to see what information is available about them on the net. Combine these ego searches with porn queries and you have a serious embarrassment. Combine them with ‘buy ecstasy’ and you have evidence of a crime. Combine it with an address, social security number, etc., and you have an identity theft waiting to happen. The possibilities are endless.”
AOL might have removed the page now, but it’s a little too late. The damage has already been done. The information has already been downloaded by many, and it is mirrored on a bunch of websites.
Right now AOL customers are fuming mad and I bet that AOL is up to their elbows in cancellations and complaints from angry customers. Boycott AOL is the words being said around the Blogosphere.
AOL messes up once again!
AOL was under fire recently for a customer service disaster as well as there was a recent story about a woman who was unable to cancel her deceased father’s AOL account, nine months after his death.
Maxine Gauthier even offered to send a copy of her father’s obituary as proof he truly was dead. An AOL service guy told her to stop complaining and learn to use a computer. Then he hung up on her.
If you liked this post, why not buy me a coffee?Technorati Tags: American Online, public domain, identity theft, AOL
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9 responses so far ↓
Wrote: Aug 7, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Good god this is unbeilevable. The first bit is bad enough with them releasing all those details, but that comment at the end is sickening. I know how bad they are though as it took me over a year to get them to cancel my account and them only because I changed my back account so they couldn’t get any money out of it.
Wrote: Aug 7, 2006 at 4:36 pm
I’m nicking this for my place, Rose. It’s truly unbelievable.
Wrote: Aug 7, 2006 at 5:56 pm
This is hideous, I mean AOL has always been labeled as bad but now it’s even worse. I mean leaking personal information and then with the woman not being able to cancel her deceased father’s account is ridiculous.
Wrote: Aug 8, 2006 at 3:47 pm
sheesh… thats seriously bad.. sometimes CSR’s can be quite a pain.. hey, where did the data protection act go?? i thought that existed ???
looks like AOL dint want to follow it…
shoddy, i say..
D
Wrote: Aug 9, 2006 at 8:04 pm
well its just disgusting…. i mean, its one thing showing the police disturbing findings, but even then can they even track the user? and its another releasing so much private information into the public domain. what a dumb ass thing to do….
Wrote: Aug 9, 2006 at 11:47 pm
Peri please do. Opps too late.
Bob My husband has dealt with AOL in the past when assisting one of his customers in helping her try to cancel her AOL account. Aol tech support is rude.
Steve, Cparker and Dave you might want to read this news article too.
A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749
Rose DesRochers
Wrote: Aug 13, 2006 at 8:07 am
Rediculous. I can’t see what kind of good they think would ever come out of that.
“hey sup guyz. lyke letz release all dis info bouts the customerz and lol fuxerd them!”
An AOL service guy told her to stop complaining and learn to use a computer.
Such amazing tech support. I should bring this up to my sister. She uses AOL.
Wrote: Aug 22, 2006 at 5:17 pm
[...] Two weeks ago, AOL released to the public domain an archive of their customers search habits over a period of 3 months. Elinor Mills, and Anne Broache, CNET News.com now report that, “Two AOL employees have been fired, and its chief technology officer is resigning, after the release of Web search data from thousands of AOL members prompted widespread criticism of the company.” Read Complete Article [...]
Wrote: Feb 23, 2008 at 10:31 pm
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