More on the recent court opinion involving the lawsuit over AOL’s 1006 release of search query data that wasn’t as anonymous as they thought. Maria Dinzeo reports:
A federal judge found AOL accountable for disclosing personal information of 658,000 of its customers. U.S. District Judge Sandra Armstrong ruled that AOL’s accidental posting of its customers’ Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers and credit-card numbers violated its own privacy policy.
“Obviously, a reasonable consumer would have serious reservations about disclosing such sensitive data – or entering certain such queries – if he or she were aware that AOL, contrary to its privacy policy, would make such information readily available to the public, without the members’ knowledge or consent,” Judge Armstrong wrote.
Read more on Courthouse News. A copy of the court opinion can be found here (pdf). Previous coverage from 2006 – 2009 can be found in PogoWasRight.org’s archives.