Influx

Recently AOL published 20 million search queries made by over 650,000 of its users during March through May of 2006. This sample accounted for one third of one percent of all queries made on AOL in this time. The data was released with good intentions of research and analysis, but AOL has since removed the link. The link was removed because they realized how much of a mistake they’d made by releasing this information. Even though the user’s names were changed to a random ID number, you could still see which searches an individual made. Specifically, you can see if an individual searched for names or other personal information. This is considered a significant problem because quite often people search for their own name to see what they can find about themselves. Therefore law enforcement agencies, along with others, will be able to determine who some of these people are. This will inevitably lead to embarrassments and possibly even arrests. Another probable outcome of this release is that query analysis will be done on the data, resulting in search engines finding more spam sites. Most notable of these spam sites are “splogs,” sites made entirely for the purpose to make money off of selling ads.