Tuesday, 26 September 2006

AOL Sued for Breaching Search Data Privacy

AOL is being sued for its inadvertent leak of member search data this summer, accused of violating privacy as well as deceptive business practices.

The class-action lawsuit, is seeking USD 5000 in damages for each person whose data was exposed. The lawsuit claims the actions were in violation of Electronic Communications Privacy Act, among other things.

AOL had put the roughly 20 million search queries on one of its research-related Web sites but pulled it and apologised after the matter came to light. Two AOL employees were fired and the chief technology officer resigned over the incident.

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.