AOL Customers Strike Back With Lawsuit

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by infoseeker, Sep 27, 2006.

  1. infoseeker

    infoseeker Master Sergeant

    Three AOL subscribers have mounted legal action against the ISP in retaliation for its disclosure of their search data. AOL accidentally posted a three-month set of search queries conducted by over 650,000 of its users in August.

    Standing on established privacy laws, three AOL subscribers are striking back at their Internet service provider after they discovered records of their online searches had been distributed across the Internet.

    Two unnamed Californians and Kasadore Ramkisson of Richmond County, N.Y., filed a lawsuit seeking unspecified financial damages on Friday in the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif.


    The trio, who are seeking class action status, are also seeking to stop AOL from retaining search-related data.

    LINK
     
    infoseeker, Sep 27, 2006
    #1
  2. insamaic

    insamaic Guest

    I don't believe there's anything really wrong with that, but Civil Rights knobs sure do....

    I feel sorry for AOL, but then again, there service sucks.
     
    insamaic, Sep 27, 2006
    #2
  3. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    AOL will have broken a few data protection act laws ( maybe different in some countries but USA, UK have very strict laws on data and what companies can do with it ) with releasing data without every members ok to do so.
     
    DavidGP, Sep 27, 2006
    #3
  4. Bladesofhalo

    Bladesofhalo MajorGeek

    Nothing like this sort ever happens by accident, AOL gets what they deserve, and today its a hot steamy plate of lawsuits :)
     
    Bladesofhalo, Sep 28, 2006
    #4
  5. insamaic

    insamaic Guest

    Yeah I know, but I don't see what's so wrong about it.... unless you've got something to hide.
     
    insamaic, Sep 28, 2006
    #5
  6. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Wether you have something to hide or not laws are laws, once they break one set who's to say they won't break more?

    Search data, while not an issue with me ( I have nothing to hide in general searches... but thats still not the issue here ), does bring a few other scary thoughts to the table, if they collect search data, who's to say that personal data that is held via the servers to other sites you have been to, say your Bank, Credit Card company will not accidently be published, while transaction data will be encrypted, the name/url of your bank will not be, add that to potential membership details, your name, location etc and the potential for fraud is hightened.

    They even said this was an accident and the data should not have been published on the general WWW, which leaves the doubt that any of their data is safe, who's to say the next gaff wont be member personal account data?

    quote taken from http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/060925/0166422.html
     
    DavidGP, Sep 28, 2006
    #6

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