AOL Proudly Releases Massive Amounts of Private Data

Iria · Aug 7, 2006, 05:37 AM

Source: TechCrunch
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Update: Sometime around 7 pm PST on Sunday, the AOL site referred to below was taken down. The direct link to the data is still live.

AOL must have missed the uproar over the DOJ’s demand for “anonymized” search data last year that caused all sorts of pain for Microsoft and Google. That’s the only way to explain their release of data that includes 20 million web queries from 650,000 AOL users.

The data includes all searches from those users for a three month period this year, as well as whether they clicked on a result, what that result was and where it appeared on the result page. It’s a 439 MB compressed download, expanded to just over 2 gigs. The data is available here (this link is directly to the file) and the output is in ten text files, tab delineated.

Update by the Moderator: Looks like all the links are dead now, but this story is going on all over the web. Looks like a big goof on AOL's part.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Aug 7, 2006, 05:50 AM

Death to AOL

Aug 7, 2006, 05:37 AM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	AOL Proudly Releases Massive Amounts of Private Data Source: TechCrunch __________ Update: Sometime around 7 pm PST on Sunday, the AOL site referred to below was taken down. The direct link to the data is still live. AOL must have missed the uproar over the DOJ’s demand for “anonymized” search data last year that caused all sorts of pain for Microsoft and Google. That’s the only way to explain their release of data that includes 20 million web queries from 650,000 AOL users. The data includes all searches from those users for a three month period this year, as well as whether they clicked on a result, what that result was and where it appeared on the result page. It’s a 439 MB compressed download, expanded to just over 2 gigs. The data is available here (this link is directly to the file) and the output is in ten text files, tab delineated. Update by the Moderator: Looks like all the links are dead now, but this story is going on all over the web. Looks like a big goof on AOL's part.

Aug 7, 2006, 05:50 AM	#2
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	Death to AOL __________________