No. 4417749

[Miasma]

It's useless but I thought I would link to a fairly interesting article dealing with an aspect of the information age in case others were interested.

I think the link might need registration so I will quote the whole thing.

Buried in a list of 20 million Web search queries collected by AOL and recently released on the Internet is user No. 4417749. The number was assigned by the company to protect the searcher’s anonymity, but it was not much of a shield.

No. 4417749 conducted hundreds of searches over a three-month period on topics ranging from “numb fingers” to “60 single men” to “dog that urinates on everything.”

And search by search, click by click, the identity of AOL user No. 4417749 became easier to discern. There are queries for “landscapers in Lilburn, Ga,” several people with the last name Arnold and “homes sold in shadow lake subdivision gwinnett county georgia.”

It did not take much investigating to follow that data trail to Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old widow who lives in Lilburn, Ga., frequently researches her friends’ medical ailments and loves her three dogs. “Those are my searches,” she said, after a reporter read part of the list to her.

AOL removed the search data from its site over the weekend and apologized for its release, saying it was an unauthorized move by a team that had hoped it would benefit academic researchers.

But the detailed records of searches conducted by Ms. Arnold and 657,000 other Americans, copies of which continue to circulate online, underscore how much people unintentionally reveal about themselves when they use search engines — and how risky it can be for companies like AOL, Google and Yahoo to compile such data.

Those risks have long pitted privacy advocates against online marketers and other Internet companies seeking to profit from the Internet’s unique ability to track the comings and goings of users, allowing for more focused and therefore more lucrative advertising.

But the unintended consequences of all that data being compiled, stored and cross-linked are what Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group in Washington, called “a ticking privacy time bomb.”

Mr. Rotenberg pointed to Google’s own joust earlier this year with the Justice Department over a subpoena for some of its search data. The company successfully fended off the agency’s demand in court, but several other search companies, including AOL, complied. The Justice Department sought the information to help it defend a challenge to a law that is meant to shield children from sexually explicit material.

“We supported Google at the time,” Mr. Rotenberg said, “but we also said that it was a mistake for Google to be saving so much information because it creates a risk.”

Ms. Arnold, who agreed to discuss her searches with a reporter, said she was shocked to hear that AOL had saved and published three months’ worth of them. “My goodness, it’s my whole personal life,” she said. “I had no idea somebody was looking over my shoulder.”

In the privacy of her four-bedroom home, Ms. Arnold searched for the answers to scores of life’s questions, big and small. How could she buy “school supplies for Iraq children”? What is the “safest place to live”? What is “the best season to visit Italy”?

Her searches are a catalog of intentions, curiosity, anxieties and quotidian questions. There was the day in May, for example, when she typed in “termites,” then “tea for good health” then “mature living,” all within a few hours.

Her queries mirror millions of those captured in AOL’s database, which reveal the concerns of expectant mothers, cancer patients, college students and music lovers. User No. 2178 searches for “foods to avoid when breast feeding.” No. 3482401 seeks guidance on “calorie counting.” No. 3483689 searches for the songs “Time After Time” and “Wind Beneath My Wings.”

At times, the searches appear to betray intimate emotions and personal dilemmas. No. 3505202 asks about “depression and medical leave.” No. 7268042 types “fear that spouse contemplating cheating.”

There are also many thousands of sexual queries, along with searches about “child porno” and “how to kill oneself by natural gas” that raise questions about what legal authorities can and should do with such information.

But while these searches can tell the casual observer — or the sociologist or the marketer — much about the person who typed them, they can also prove highly misleading.

At first glace, it might appear that Ms. Arnold fears she is suffering from a wide range of ailments. Her search history includes “hand tremors,” “nicotine effects on the body,” “dry mouth” and “bipolar.” But in an interview, Ms. Arnold said she routinely researched medical conditions for her friends to assuage their anxieties. Explaining her queries about nicotine, for example, she said: “I have a friend who needs to quit smoking and I want to help her do it.”

Asked about Ms. Arnold, an AOL spokesman, Andrew Weinstein, reiterated the company’s position that the data release was a mistake. “We apologize specifically to her,” he said. “There is not a whole lot we can do.”

Mr. Weinstein said he knew of no other cases thus far where users had been identified as a result of the search data, but he was not surprised. “We acknowledged that there was information that could potentially lead to people being identified, which is why we were so angry.”

AOL keeps a record of each user’s search queries for one month, Mr. Weinstein said. This allows users to refer back to previous searches and is also used by AOL to improve the quality of its search technology. The three-month data that was released came from a special system meant for AOL’s internal researchers that does not record the users’ AOL screen names, he said.

Several bloggers claimed yesterday to have identified other AOL users by examining data, while others hunted for particularly entertaining or shocking search histories. Some programmers made this easier by setting up Web sites that let people search the database of searches.

John Battelle, the author of the 2005 book “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture,” said AOL’s misstep, while unfortunate, could have a silver lining if people began to understand just what was at stake. In his book, he says search engines are mining the priceless “database of intentions” formed by the world’s search requests.

“It’s only by these kinds of screw-ups and unintended behind-the-curtain views that we can push this dialogue along,” Mr. Battelle said. “As unhappy as I am to see this data on people leaked, I’m heartened that we will have this conversation as a culture, which is long overdue.”

Ms. Arnold says she loves online research, but the disclosure of her searches has left her disillusioned. In response, she plans to drop her AOL subscription. “We all have a right to privacy,” she said. “Nobody should have found this all out.”

[WayAbvPar]

I just got done reading that in the paper. Very disturbing stuff.

[Samwise]

Trust the Computer.  The Computer is your friend.

[WayAbvPar]

Moved this to GD- it is not entirely useless news, and should be seen and commented on by a larger audience methinks.

[shiznitz]

I just got done reading that in the paper. Very disturbing stuff.

Disturbing implies this is a surprise. There are millions of ways what we do is tracked by various organizations.  I see this is "tell me something I didn't know or suspect."

[Yegolev]

Well, I guess I should drop by her house and give her my condolences.

LOL internet anonymity

[Mr_PeaCH]

THELMA!  I've got your number
I need to make you mine!
THELMA!  Don't change your number...

4417749... 4417749...

[Sky]

Trust the Computer.  The Computer is your friend.

[WindiaN]

in another article i read they said people had searched their creditcard numbers and SSN and shit like that (why the fuck would you do that?). My question is, if someone like that got their identity stolen and sued AOL and won, would it be good or bad for internet privacy and all that jazz?

[Nija]

Here's the craziest motherfucker you'll find in that list.

http://www.aolstalker.com/user.php?uid=2281868

[WayAbvPar]

Here's the craziest motherfucker you'll find in that list.

http://www.aolstalker.com/user.php?uid=2281868

Umm, yeah.

joseph wendell johnson jr.

Guessing that is him? He did another search with his address in it if you want to drop by with a DVD full of interspecies erotica and gays with overbites.

[Miasma]

Here's the craziest motherfucker you'll find in that list.

http://www.aolstalker.com/user.php?uid=2281868

Holy crap.  I had to click a couple dozen times to get past a message saying the database was overloaded but it was well worth it.  Just think that this guy is out there somewhere, thinking his thoughts, right now.

[Nija]

Yeah that MIGHT be him, but it might be another guy that's listed further down.

tuskegee university and people who have nightmares about it after attending it 2006-05-13 22:14:47 0

rock on.

[WindiaN]

Guessing that is him? He did another search with his address in it if you want to drop by with a DVD full of interspecies erotica and gays with overbites.

or jazz music...

[HaemishM]

I think someone needs to refill his prescription.

[Sky]

2281868..."killing voyeur neighbors who are satanic cult mem" "how destroy demons that live in apt above"

I think I lived over that guy.

2791167 is a pretty picture, too.

Then again, it makes one wonder what our own searches would look like listed over time when considering digging up pictures or references for this site.

[WindiaN]

Then again, it makes one wonder what our own searches would look like listed over time when considering digging up pictures or references for this site.

Yeah... that Ann Coulter thread involved links to genitalia with teeth...

[Viin]

It's weird. It's like secretly looking into someone's private life. I'm sure some of the searches I've done would seem odd to someone looking in (especially out of context), but it's almost like a diary. Reading that list seems very intrusive.

[Morfiend]

Here's the craziest motherfucker you'll find in that list.

http://www.aolstalker.com/user.php?uid=2281868

The best line. Besides the demon one.

do niggers have x-ray vision

[WindiaN]

do niggers have x-ray vision

I'm pretty sure he is black too...

[geldonyetich]

2281868 lost me at "is buddism satanism".  From my own reading that branch of Eastern philosophy, I'd say that transcends polar opposites.

Suddenly my GMail account strikes me as a less than good bargain.  I noticed awhile back that it actually has a link to keep track of recent searches.  If you've ever had the displeasure of reading my Blog you'll know I have no shame, but it's not too hard to generate lists of searches that have nothing to do with who I am.  The "Personal Search" feature is installed by default, and is not easy to manually maintain.  Fortunately, you can totally remove the entire feature, but it's installed by default.

[Krakrok]

You know that Google does the same profiling on their search right? And they have said they aren't going to stop.

Google doesn't have a unique account for each user (like AOL does) unless you are logged in. However, what I think they have said in the past is that they create unique profiles based off of IP address, user agent (browser), and a cookie. All of those combined togather are pretty unique and they store the search history under that. So even if you clear the cookie they still uniquely identify you based on user agent and IP address. The user agent lets you uniquely identify multiple people behind the same IP address (NAT) unless the machines have the exact same browser etc. setup. Your IP address by itself already gives away your city location with ~98% accuracy.

If your IP address and/or user agent change you get uniqued by the cookie. If you clear your cookies you get uniqued by IP address and/or user agent.

[geldonyetich]

So, all I did by registering a Gmail account with them is provide some missing pieces of the puzzle.  Fortunately, it looks like all they required from me was my First and Last name, as well as a verification email address.  There's nothing really stopping them from leveraging my browsing activities as an indicator of the kind of spam I want to get.  But hey, 1 Gig mail and free Blogging.

[bhodi]

Surprised no one's posted it yet, but somethingawful's got a terrific summary of the best (worst) searches (NS4W text because people are dirty):

Part 1
Part 2

Search your own

[NiX]

Part 1 - Page 2 - Second last one. If that isn't fake.. wow.

[Sky]

I especially like the ones who treat the search engine like it's the Wizard of Oz and try asking it direct questions.

I bet we get a lot of those people using our public internet here.

[NowhereMan]

The really wierd ones are the people who don't even ask questions and just type in a statement.

i wont vote hillary and condolesa none of them

Way to let the internet know how you feel.

[Telemediocrity]

My favorite is "how to tell if you're pregnant" --> "baby clothes --> "what if the father doesnt want the baby" --> "abortion clinics near my city" --> "does god forgive christians for abortion", over the span of a month or two.

[Krakrok]

I especially like the ones who treat the search engine like it's the Wizard of Oz and try asking it direct questions.

Hey, I do that occasionally. It works too as I usually find whatever I was looking for from the first result. Example: 'where can I find free css templates'. I'm pretty sure Google intelligently strips out filler words. Natural language queries for the win.


Someone also created a Firefox extention which sends random queries at random intervals to the search engine to obfuscate your real queries (TrackMeNot). An analyse of it said it wouldn't work very well though because it stuck to 1500 words and only two random words per query. Someone with access to the list of the random words could pull out your real queries easily. Additionally most of the embarrassing queries were more than two words.

[Sky]

My girlfriend didn't believe Popeye's dad was named Poopdeck Pappy. I told her to make sure safe search was on before she googled it.

[JoeTF]

in another article i read they said people had searched their creditcard numbers and SSN and shit like that (why the fuck would you do that?). My question is, if someone like that got their identity stolen and sued AOL and won, would it be good or bad for internet privacy and all that jazz?

I would. To see if someone else is already using or publicising them.

[Telemediocrity]

What JoeTF said.  I've done that before (from a box I knew was secure), just to make sure it wasn't floating out there, when companies posted that millions of their credit card / SSNs had been stolen from their server or something.  I have a google alert saved on my full name, address, and phone number as well.

[CmdrSlack]

My girlfriend didn't believe Popeye's dad was named Poopdeck Pappy. I told her to make sure safe search was on before she googled it.

It'd only be embarassing if she googled for "Poopchute Pappy."

In other news, Google has finally gotten around to asking people to not use "google" as a verb.  Dumbasses, they should have been on top of that years ago.  I almost hope they lose their trademark protection.

[NowhereMan]

Actually they've more specifically asked people not to use google as a verb meaning 'to search on the internet'. It is entirely acceptable to use it as a verb if you are referring to using Google to search for something.

[Morfiend]

Actually they've more specifically asked people not to use google as a verb meaning 'to search on the internet'. It is entirely acceptable to use it as a verb if you are referring to using Google to search for something.

I hate when people use the term google to mean searching the internet other than buy using Google. Its just stupid.