EFF to FTC: Investigate AOL

ASAP! PDQ! Insert RTL Here!

Published on August 15, 2006 By Zoomba In WinCustomize News

Last week, Internet services provider America Online inadvertently released a massive amount of search data to unauthorized third parties. This breach of security and privacy has left many people upset and feeling a little uneasy towards AOL, who has claimed it won't happen again. Well, simply saying "Sorry, won't do it anymore" doesn't seem to cut it for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization focused on freedom, privacy and security issues on the Internet. They've filed an official complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission demanding that an investigation into the incident be conducted.

Read more on the details of the incident at BetaNews.

Comments

GreatSilverWyrm

on Aug 15, 2006

Perhaps they can do a double-whammy and stop the buggers from downright refusing to let you cancel your account.
Then maybe they can investigate why people are billed for months after they do manage to cancel their accounts.

ericdrum

on Aug 15, 2006

I work with a girl whose sister works in 'customer retention' at aol. After that last major snafu with the tape released on the internet they supposedly changed their 'retention techniques'.

sweetasman01

on Aug 15, 2006

I have my copy of the data base

. It is surprising what Americans search for. A lot of sex porn and drugs.

Sea Hourse

on Aug 16, 2006

Sweetasman01, I belong to another forum where its name came up in several searches. Some people on the board did a review of several of these cases to show a number of the places that the AOL members had visited. Like you say, a lot of sex and some of it was pretty kinky. You could begin to do a profile after a while that inlcuded where they lived, their gender, their approximate age group, their income, and quite a few other things. A first read it was pretty funny but the implications are scary.

George Rogers Jr

on Aug 16, 2006

Regardless, this is THE reason to stay away from AOL.

TheGuyPC

on Aug 16, 2006

Is this the same bastard child of a company that is the offspring of those who wish to create a "tiered" internet? AOL = Time Warner right? I think they've been lobbying to give themselves the ability to do things that would be considered downright anti-social to most surfers. They took it underground, granted, but their efforts seem to have increased dramatically.

You see...they would like to make sites of THEIR choosing get priority bandwidth through their servers. Servers that you are paying a premium to have access to. That's not good enough though. Nor is the fact that most of these companies, (that are doing the special priveledge lobbying), are listed among the Fortune 500 already. But that's not enough! They need bigger profits at YOUR expense.

Free speech issues abound. You may very well be blocked from EVEN VISITING certain websites based on your subscription status with the telecom/media companies AND, based on wether or not the site you want to visit pays said telecom/media companies a premium for bandwidth.

I guess it's no surprise that they would "accidentally" release all of this info to third parties. Do you think for a minute that someone's pocket wasn't lined by it? It's all about the bottom line now isn't it? But hey, if you have AOL stock, they are purposely being devalued. Don't despair. Greed reigns supreme at AOL. They are busy greasing the wheels before they unveil their big "Free Frickin' Everything" program. You think they released info now? Just sign up for some of their big ideas in the near future.

You may want to check the "tiered" internet proposals out for yourselves. You can also look in to what AOL is planning for the very near future. I'd give you a link or a million.....but this story changes day by day. You can Google it. Something will show up. Then, write your representatives! I did.

This would be a great WC article topic. But I'm not smart enuf to write it...so maybe one of the genus's heer can.

PC

cybermessiah

on Aug 16, 2006

Well pointed out PC guy!! I too, stand 100% by your concerns. More people should definately speak out about this issue. If not enough people start to educate themselves about this nastly not-so-little internet conglomorate and actively pursue its invesigation, then civil liberties as we know them will be a thing of the past.....thats is if they aren't deteriorated enough already. Considering that the disclosure of logs by the AOL was wrong, the EFF is ready and willing to battle AOL.

AOL did made some apologies, but no official statement was given. For this, EFF is asking your help to make the things right.

Two questions, if you are an AOL user, have to be answered by yourself: Were you one of the AOL customers whose personal data was exposed? Was a friend or family member?

You can contact AOL and do the following:

1. First, ask to be informed if you were one of the AOL members affected by the leak.

2. Second, say that you’d like AOL to stop keeping these kinds of logs.

3. Third, say that AOL should work with Congress to make stronger laws to protect the privacy in data collected by Internet companies.

4. Fourth, ask to be contacted when AOL decides to take action on these problems.

After you get their response, you can log it their answer on the EEF website:
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?alertId=243&rid=other.281&pg=logACall

EFF didn’t said what they will do with the information but they were the ones that defended three news websites that focused on Apple related products and news. Apple took the websites to court over leaked product information but consequently lost the case. Bad move Apple.
Do something and make your voice heard.

starkers

on Aug 16, 2006

Recently bought a new Soundblaster card and with it came a disc for free AOL for 3 months and half priced for 3 months....reading this, glad I wasn't tempted. Already have my ISP and dunno it'd do me much good here in Oz, anyhow!

FuryThree

on Aug 20, 2006

AOL Discs = Free clay pidgeons

starkers

on Aug 21, 2006

AOL Discs = Free clay pidgeons

Been using it as a frisbee but can't train the cat to bring it back.

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