Comments on: AOL opens up Pandora’s Box, leaks private data http://www.bignewstoday.com/web-crap/aol-opens-up-pandoras-box-leaks-private-data/ Extra, extra! comment all about it Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:45:30 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Big News Today » AOL digs for gold in spammer’s parent’s house http://www.bignewstoday.com/web-crap/aol-opens-up-pandoras-box-leaks-private-data/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Big News Today » AOL digs for gold in spammer’s parent’s house Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:41:18 +0000 http://www.bignewstoday.com/uncategorized/aol-opens-up-pandoras-box-leaks-private-data/#comment-11 [...] In a twist of irony, AOL gave a major contribution to the world of web spam last week by releasing massive amounts of personal search data that is currently being used to create enormous networks of spammy websites. With the recent reports of spyware and other spam-related results being turned up by Google’s search results, its even more important to make sure your computer is protected. You might want to scan your PC. [...] [...] In a twist of irony, AOL gave a major contribution to the world of web spam last week by releasing massive amounts of personal search data that is currently being used to create enormous networks of spammy websites. With the recent reports of spyware and other spam-related results being turned up by Google’s search results, its even more important to make sure your computer is protected. You might want to scan your PC. [...]

]]> By: Shlomo Argamon http://www.bignewstoday.com/web-crap/aol-opens-up-pandoras-box-leaks-private-data/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Shlomo Argamon Wed, 09 Aug 2006 21:43:34 +0000 http://www.bignewstoday.com/uncategorized/aol-opens-up-pandoras-box-leaks-private-data/#comment-6 In all the current discussion about AOL's sharing of the query-log data, there has been little emphasis on the importance of such data to research on information retrieval. In addition to the real privacy concerns, a key point that must be considered is the fact that if useable data is not made available to the wider research community, only the big search companies will be able to analyze that data. We academic researchers are increasingly dependent upon industry for this sort of data to do research; the sort of small-scale data that can be gathered in a university-based setting is simply insufficient for obtaining reliable experimental results. Should companies be prevented from sharing data with the research community (either by law or public outcry), research progress will be greatly reduced, as it will be impossible to compare different studies with one another, since each study's data will be proprietary, and thus no one will be able to trust any research result from another lab. All non-industrial research in this area will more-or-less dry up, and search technology will tend more and more to be developed in "closed-shop" efforts within the large firms; innovative startups and open-source hacking will not exist, since the research projects that serve as launching pads for such technological innovation will not exist. This prospect should disturb us all, as search technology (broadly construed) is more and more the vehicle that people use to gain information about their society and the world. All of this is not meant to ignore the real privacy issues that can be involved in the preparation and release of such data. It appears to me that there was little real privacy risk in the data released by AOL, but it is clear that policies and practices need to be debated and developed that accomplish two essential goals: (a) to protect the privacy of individuals in any sharing of research data, and (b) to ensure that as much useful data can be shared by companies with the greater research community. In this effort researchers and privacy experts must collaborate to ensure that all sides of these important issues are properly addressed. Shlomo Argamon, Associate Professor Department of Computer Science Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL 60616 In all the current discussion about AOL’s sharing of the query-log
data, there has been little emphasis on the importance of such data to
research on information retrieval. In addition to the real privacy
concerns, a key point that must be considered is the fact that if
useable data is not made available to the wider research community,
only the big search companies will be able to analyze that data. We
academic researchers are increasingly dependent upon industry for this
sort of data to do research; the sort of small-scale data that can be
gathered in a university-based setting is simply insufficient for
obtaining reliable experimental results.

Should companies be prevented from sharing data with the research
community (either by law or public outcry), research progress will be
greatly reduced, as it will be impossible to compare different studies
with one another, since each study’s data will be proprietary, and
thus no one will be able to trust any research result from another
lab. All non-industrial research in this area will more-or-less dry
up, and search technology will tend more and more to be developed in
“closed-shop” efforts within the large firms; innovative startups and
open-source hacking will not exist, since the research projects that
serve as launching pads for such technological innovation will not
exist. This prospect should disturb us all, as search technology
(broadly construed) is more and more the vehicle that people use to
gain information about their society and the world.

All of this is not meant to ignore the real privacy issues that can be
involved in the preparation and release of such data. It appears to
me that there was little real privacy risk in the data released by
AOL, but it is clear that policies and practices need to be debated
and developed that accomplish two essential goals: (a) to protect the
privacy of individuals in any sharing of research data, and (b) to
ensure that as much useful data can be shared by companies with the
greater research community. In this effort researchers and privacy
experts must collaborate to ensure that all sides of these important
issues are properly addressed.

Shlomo Argamon, Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL 60616

]]> By: Art http://www.bignewstoday.com/web-crap/aol-opens-up-pandoras-box-leaks-private-data/comment-page-1/#comment-3 Art Mon, 07 Aug 2006 20:58:59 +0000 http://www.bignewstoday.com/uncategorized/aol-opens-up-pandoras-box-leaks-private-data/#comment-3 By the way, if you\'re an AOL user and are on broadband, stop paying for your account - they just made the service free, but they won\'t voluntarily stop collecting money from you unless you request it. This is assuming anyone will still use AOL after this fiasco. Want more analysis? Mark of PlentyofFish has an <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/2006/08/07/aol-search-data-shows-users-planning-to-commit-murder/\" rel="nofollow">interesting post</a>. So who exactly is affected? Is it just AOL users or anyone using AOL search earlier this year? Is this actually Google\'s search results (since they power AOL search)? By the way, if you\’re an AOL user and are on broadband, stop paying for your account – they just made the service free, but they won\’t voluntarily stop collecting money from you unless you request it. This is assuming anyone will still use AOL after this fiasco. Want more analysis? Mark of PlentyofFish has an interesting post.
So who exactly is affected? Is it just AOL users or anyone using AOL search earlier this year? Is this actually Google\’s search results (since they power AOL search)?

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