RSSAOL Sued Over Search Data Release
By Ed Oswald | Published September 25, 2006, 4:24 PM
AOL is facing a possible class action lawsuit over the release of search result data of 650,000 users in July. While the identities of those involved were scrambled, some of the data included within provided evidence of possible crimes.
The suit was filed in federal court for the Northern District of California by the law firm of Berman, DeValiero, Pease, Tabacco, Burt & Pucillo of San Francisco. It accuses AOL of violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, plus several California consumer and advertising laws.
In seeking class action status, the suit asks for no less than $1,000 in compensation to those nationwide for violations of federal law, and an additional $4,000 in damages to those in California under the state's own laws.
Since it is not clear how many of the 650,000 AOL members included in the search data release were from California, it is also not immediately clear how much AOL would be ordered to pay as part of the class action, although a judgement against AOL would likely cost it several million dollars to settle.
Additionally, injunctive relief has been sought to prevent AOL from storing search result data in the future and making it publicly available, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Lawyers for the plaintiffs are also asking the court to order that AOL pay all court costs.
"On information and belief, AOL, without the knowledge of its members, has a business practice of recording and storing each and every Internet search query made by each of its members," the suit alleges.
AOL was not commenting on the lawsuit.
"AOL is facing a possible class action lawsuit over the release of search result data of 650,000 users in July. While the identities of those involved were scrambled, some of the data included within provided evidence of possible crimes."
Please don't misunderstand me when I say what I am about to say--but shouldn't criminals be prosecuted regardless? I mean, what does the fact that there were links in possible criminal activity have to do with this?
AOL released data that it itself has guaranteed would stay private. For that reason alone, AOL needs to face consequences. My point is that whether there were crimes or not, all users were christians or muslims, or if it was only males information that was revealed...it has nothing to do with law, betanews, or northern california. For lawyers to imply that it is private BECAUSE there was illegal activity is just...looney. Let's give the criminals and terrorists their privacy while law abiding American citizens are spied on (not referring to NSA here).
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"Couldn't happen to a nicer corporation."
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Tell us what they did to you and make your comment more understandable.
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I think you're mis-reading the article. I believe the fact it may include evidence of crimes was an addendum added by BetaNews, not part of the reason for the lawsuit. The lawsuit would simply be regarding the breach of privacy - irrespective of the whether there was criminal activity involved or not.
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If you read the TOS and privacy statement, when you register you expect AOL to stay faithful to that contract.
It's like going to re-hab, and talking about stuff that shouldn't be said publicly because it may offend others or contain other private information.
The introduction of the article would suggest that AOL's motivation for releasing that data was for the purpose of tracking down criminals or assisting the authorities in such cases.
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"AOL is facing
a possible class
action lawsuit"
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Couldn't happen to a nicer corporation.
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The Computer Rodent
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