Earlier this semester in my information policy class we were discussing the 2006 AOL search history debacle. An AOL researcher released over 36 million search queries and IP addresses of hundreds of thousands of AOL users collected over a three month period. The information was released intentionally but was intended for the research community for research purposes. People were able to identify the individuals based on their search queries. AOL had "de-identified" each user by assigning them a number, however, all of the search queries associated with an IP address were assigned the same number.
- Here is a New York Times article about one of these individuals: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html?_r=2.
- And here is the Wikipedia entry about the scandal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_data_scandal.
- And here is an Ars Technica article about it: http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2006/08/7433/.
Lernert Engelberts and Sander Plug created a series of short films about user #711391 title "I Love Alaska." Here is the trailer:
You can view them all online here: http://www.minimovies.org/documentaires/view/ilovealaska. This is another Ars Technica article, but this time about "I Love Alaska": http://arstechnica.com/business/2009/01/aol-search-data-spawns-i-love-alaska-short-films/.
How de-identified is de-identified enough? It also makes a very strong case for encrypting data.
Alyssa,
ReplyDeleteHave you heard about VPN (Virtual Privacy Network) ? My brother in-law downloaded it a few months ago and it blocks IP address and assumes another, which is always changing. This ensures a high level of browsing and downloading privacy, although it seems highly illegal. I believe he did it so he could access only American only sports tv stations and USA Netflix. However, it would also be useful for internet privacy. Apparently VPN is nothing new but I think it's super cool and potential solution to internet privacy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network
Hey Jacqueline,
ReplyDeleteVPNs are interesting! It's funny I haven't ever thought of them as a privacy solution, but that's a good point. UBC used to use a VPN client to enable off-campus access to library resources, but they recently switch to a proxy login (?). Which seems like an acceptable use. Like your brother-in-law, my husband may… or may not… have downloaded an IP masker to circumvent geographical content boundaries (sports channels, US Netflix, Hulu, etc.). Which does seems highly illegal as you noted.
(Note: I had a much better response typed up, but it was lost by my terrible internet connection).
My boyfriend also downloaded a program that changes your IP address, called tunnel bear. This too was so he could access American websites, but I never considered it a privacy issue until recently. With the changing law in canada of downloading movies and music I thought about how effective this program would be from hiding illegal behaviors. For some reason when your in the confines of your home and watching a movie online it does not feel like stealing someone's personal property, although it definitely is. I wonder if altering your address is illegal, and if so maybe when it comes to online activities it can never be considered private (at least it seems the government feels this way). All in all privacy on the internet is an interesting topic, thanks for posting!
ReplyDelete