AOL members sue over search data release

Now it begins. And, unfortunately, the action being called for constitutes throwing the baby out with the bath water.

AOL members sue over search data release

"Three AOL LLC members have sued the company over its controversial release of member search-engine records, in what their lawyers are billing as the first such lawsuit seeking national class-action status.

The three members are charging the Time Warner Inc. subsidiary with, among other things, privacy violation, false advertising and unjust enrichment.
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The lawsuit seeks monetary relief for all affected AOL members in the U.S. whose search data was disclosed without consent from Jan. 1, 2004, to the present.

The plaintiffs also ask the court to instruct AOL not to store or maintain users' Web search records and to destroy the Web search records it currently has.
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I'm sorry to see that the suits seek to prohibit AOL (and, using precedent, the rest of web-resident organizations) from retaining search records. A more reasonable, and less draconian measure, would be to seek a "standard of care" for customer data like this, which provides privacy for the user, while offering truly valuable data subject to analysis of all kinds.

Technorati Tags: Data Protection, Personal Identifying Information, Security Incentives