I've talked before how easy it can be to use supposedly anonymous search data to find out who actually made the search. This is in relation to government requests/requirements that search engines such as Google must turn over such anonymous data to the government. The allegation was that the search data was anonymous and no one could or would be identified.
In this article, it appears that an AOL researcher released three months worth of AOL subscriber search queries for academic research purposes. This amounted to 20 million searches from more than 650,000 AOL customers. Although numbers were substituted for customer's names, it is always possible to use the search terms to link back to the names of the people who made the searches, which was exactly what was done.
Although the release was an intentional one, intended for academic purposes, it is clear that many people do not understand the ease in which search engine data can be misused. Be clear, I am not saying no research can or should be done. However, everyone must understand and take appropriate action to keep private information, private.
Aloha!
