AOL's Privacy Blunder

A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749 - New York Times

I said it long ago that these types of stories will continue to crop up as long as internet companies come to realize how much valuable information they are collecting through user searches. The focus throughout the 90s on delivering targeted advertising seemed shortsighted and shallow to me, when so much more could potentially be gleaned from the reams of data put out there through search queries. And it isn't comforting to realize that companies like AOL really don't know what they're doing after all. Shouldn't they be the ones who are aware of the huge privacy implications of collecting and compiling search statistics? This is not to say that this data should not be collected, in fact, in aggregate form this data has incredible value, for market research and beyond. But surely AOL and others know better than to release this data to the throngs of net users (and journalists) with nothing better to do than stalk people based on their web searches.