AOL is facing legal action from three people whose search data was released by the company. AOL executives have doubtless been expecting something of this sort to happen after the massive leak of search user data. According to an AP report in the Washington Post the company is to be sued by three of the people :
NEW YORK — 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, including the three plaintiffs _ two unnamed Californians and Kasadore Ramkissoon of Richmond County, N.Y.
As we noted on this blog, the AOL data gives the search engine marketing industry a fascinating insight into search behaviour.
But for some people their intimate relationship with the search engine - the data showed all the minutiae of people’s private lives translated into search terms - was something they felt should never have been made public. It is no surprise that they are seeking compensation.
John Battelle suggests that “counsel at Google, Yahoo, et al are watching this one closely.”
Bet they are too.
Via the Guardian Technology blog.
