AOL Subscribers Sue Over Release Of Search Data 97
An anonymous reader points out an AP story indicating that AOL hasn't seen the end of its own public embarrassment after airing some dirty laundry on behalf of its customers. Excerpted from the story: "Three AOL subscribers who suddenly found records of their Internet searches widely distributed online are suing the company under privacy laws and are seeking an end to its retention of search-related data ... The lawsuit is believed to be the first in the wake of AOL's intentional release of some 19 million search requests made over a three-month period by more than 650,000 subscribers. ... Filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., the lawsuit seeks class-action status. It does not specify the amount of damages being sought."
With luck, this will accomplish two things: (Score:5, Interesting)
2) Hastening the timely demise of AOL
Oh... (Score:3, Interesting)
Besides these AOL users shouldn't get too worked up. They couldn't possibly be too concerned about what anyone thinks about them or they wouldn't be using AOL in the first place. The rest of the Internet wasn't particularly surprised at the contents of that search data -- we were all working under the assumption that everyone on AOL was searching for pictures of poo and instructions on how to murder people anyway. The data in question simply confirmed that suspicion.
Re:With luck, this will accomplish two things: (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wondering (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Probably civilly actionable. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:With luck, this will accomplish two things: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wondering (Score:3, Interesting)
x - y - z = -1635
0 y 100
0 x 773
0 z 10000
There are only so many solutions to that problem...