AOL did a very foolish thing last week– they released information about the web searches (using their search engine) performed by 650,000 people. It was an enormous database where each user was assigned a unique number (to prevent anyone from knowing their true identity) and then all searches performed by that user were listed.
Aside from the obvious privacy implications, there’s the troubling fact that given a list of several months’ worth of searches by a single person, it’s possible to build a rudimentary profile of that person. In some cases it’s even possible to identify him or her. Take the examples of several users who searched for their own Social Security number. Perhaps they wanted to be sure the number wasn’t “in the open” in order to protect themselves from identity theft. Their reasons, whatever they may be, are their own. But now that AOL has released that information, without the permission of the users, researchers, hackers, and people who are just plain bored are having a field day with it.
Despite the fact that AOL realized their mistake and removed the data from their web site, the damage had been done. The data is everywhere already– mirrored around the world, available for download to anyone who can run a couple of quick searches (on Google, hopefully, not AOL).
I’ve read a few things about this, but the most interesting one deals with user #17556639 (again, an anonymous ID number). These are the searches this user entered:
17556639 how to kill your wife
17556639 wife killer
17556639 how to kill a wife
17556639 poop
17556639 dead people
17556639 pictures of dead people
17556639 killed people
17556639 dead pictures
17556639 dead pictures
17556639 dead pictures
17556639 murder photo
17556639 steak and cheese
17556639 photo of death
17556639 photo of death
17556639 death
17556639 dead people photos
17556639 photo of dead people
17556639 www.murderdpeople.com
17556639 decapatated photos
17556639 decapatated photos
17556639 car crashes3
17556639 car crashes3
17556639 car crash photo
Let’s ignore the fact this guy can’t spell “decapitated”, and for some reason searched for “poop” and, later, “steak and cheese”. There’s clearly a disturbing theme to these search terms. Is it some guy who wants his wife dead? That’s certainly the immediate thought. If it’s true, and he’s planning something, should AOL take some kind of action?
It’s obvious this opens up a barrel of monkeys the size of the Empire State Building. Even if this guy does want to kill his wife, he has (as far as we know) not yet committed a crime. There’s nothing illegal about searching for things like this, nor is it illegal to view– for example– photos of car crashes or decapitated people. Although I would argue this person has some scary interests, the searches themselves are within the bounds of the law.
The most frightening thing– to me– is the thought that the Government will see things like this (heck, let’s face it: they probably already have, since they commandeered searches from major players a few months ago), and their knee-jerk reaction will be to require the search-engine providers to implement some kind of algorithm to look for patterns in searches. Patterns like the one above would trigger an alarm, the FBI would be sent to investigate, and things would go south from there.
One hates to compare this to, say, Minority Report or 1984, where thoughts can be criminal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some idiot congressperson decides to take action on it. I suppose we’ll wait and see.