This article describes how easy it was to identify the person who had made various queries on AOL’s service, she being one of hundreds of thousands whose search queries were recorded and then released on the Internet recently by AOL. AOL removed searchers’ names, yet it was still possible to identify several people by looking at their queries in aggregate.
This case brings home just how public your searching information can be. For anyone who thinks that they can query search engines anonymously on racy topics like kinky pornography should think again. Big Brother is watching, and could post your search queries publicly on the Internet at any time.
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Not only should the AOL users fear that. They should also fear serving a long prison sentence based upon some of the images that they downloaded. The Justice Department are likely trawling through those images now and may follow up with search warrants to impound and analyse peoples machines. From then, it is a short trip to the courthouse.
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