Monday, December 14, 2009

AOL Search Data Scandal


For a 3 month period before August 2006, AOL monitored and recorded the search history for over a .5 million of its customers. This was initially meant for research purposes, but when the data was released to the public in August lulz ensued. Seven days after the release, AOL realized the mistake and removed to content from their web site, but it was too late. The information already spread to the farthest corners of the internet. The story was over when AOL was hit with a class-action lawsuit a month later. Here is the Wikipedia article on he scandal.

And for the rest of the Internet...
The customer search histories are hosted and made search-able by multiple sites. AOL Psycho has ranked the most interesting users for easy access to lulz. They even have a commenting system to aid in new lulz. AOL Stalker has a tagging system to help you find new lulz. And for those of you with too much free time on your hands, here is the raw data itself.

Examples
User named "AOL Trial User" first and last search was:
"how do i cancel my free trial of aol"

User named "Google.com" has a cat with a bad case of butthurt:
"my cat has a sore butt"
"what do i put on my cats sore butt"
"cat has sore butt"
"my cats butt is raw"

drug maker learns to make drugs:
"how to make extacy"
"what makes up extacy"
"what is in extacy"
"mdma"
"what is the drug mda"
"how were the black slaves aquired" // WTF???
"how to make exstacy"
"easy way to make extacy"
"totes how to make extacy"
"what is chemical make up of extacy"

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