EFF Privacy Group Seeks Federal Probe Of AOL

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EFF Privacy Group Seeks Federal Probe Of AOL

engine

4:47 pm on Aug 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

A privacy group has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate AOL for publishing on the Web search phrases and words used by 658,000 subscribers during a three-month period.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, based in San Francisco, said AOL violated its own privacy policy and FTC regulations, and should be ordered to notify the people affected, and to stop logging search data "except where absolutely necessary."

EFF Privacy Group Seeks Federal Probe Of AOL [informationweek.com]

gregbo

9:43 pm on Aug 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

Here's a link to a WSJ article featuring a debate between an EFF lawyer and the executive director of the public policy lobby group Google and Yahoo belong to.

[online.wsj.com...]

wmuser

9:44 pm on Aug 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

I am wondering why only EFF has sued them yet?
With all that 400 MB+ data a lot of interested organizations could do that as well

MatthewHSE

11:45 pm on Aug 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

Stop logging search data? Big precedent if it goes over.

gregbo

8:24 pm on Aug 18, 2006 (gmt 0)

It's very unlikely that the SEs will stop logging search data. It's a critical part of how they do business. As in other things, it would help matters much if they disclosed what they are capturing and who has access to the information.