Lawsuit against AOL threatens search engine cookie store

Richard Wray

AOL is being sued by three American users after details of their internet searches were made available by the US web firm this year. The lawsuit also demands that the company stop maintaining records of what users are looking for on the internet, a move which could hamper the development of the burgeoning search-engine industry.
In July AOL, which is owned by the media conglomerate Time Warner, posted the search requests of 658,000 AOL subscribers, made between March and May 2006, on a research website. The intention was to allow academics to get a better understanding of what was being looked for and how the search results were used. The data was, however, quickly plastered all over the internet, raising fears that it could be used by spammers and internet scam artists.

While the identities of users were not divulged, the searches contained information which could be used to locate a person. The New York Times identified one searcher through such requests as “60 single men”, “numb fingers” and “dog that urinates on everything” as a 62-year-old widow who lives in the southern state of Georgia.

When AOL, in which Google has a 5% stake, realised how the information was being used it removed the database from its website. But it had been replicated on other sites. At the time a spokesman described the decision to make the data publicly available as “a screw-up, and we’re angry and upset”.

A few weeks later, AOL sacked its chief technology officer, Maureen Govern, who had been in the role since last September, and two other employees.

Three AOL users have launched a class action lawsuit in a California court alleging that the web portal violated laws governing electronic communications and privacy by releasing the data. They are calling for compensation of at least $1,000 (£530) a member. Their lawyers in San Francisco are looking for other AOL users who believe their rights have been infringed, to join the action. If they do, AOL could be facing a $658m lawsuit.

Internet search engines place electronic tags - called cookies - on users’ computers, enabling a search engine to compile a database of customer behaviour, in the same way that store cards help retailers track who is buying what items.