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GAOL Faces Lawsuit Over Search Data Release
Three subscribers, whose Internet searches were included in search data released by AOL, have commenced a lawsuit against the ISP. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, alleges violations of the U.S. Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California consumer protection laws.
The complaint arises from the widely-reported release by AOL of approximately 19 million Internet search requests over a three-month period by more than 650,000 subscribers. Two AOL employees were fired in the wake of the intentional data release, and the company’s chief technical officer also resigned. The released data did not directly identify subscribers, although the search terms themselves often contained personally identifiable and sensitive data, and in some cases were traceable to identifiable individuals. AOL subsequently removed the data from its website, although copies of the search data had already circulated around the Internet.
The suit does not specify the amount of damages being sought. Lawyers for the plaintiffs seek an end to AOL’s search data retention practices, and the destruction of search data AOL has already compiled. They argue that AOL should take further steps to stop the dissemination of the released search data, including by attempting to shut down websites that continue to make the data available or block those sites from its own search engine.
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