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Opinion
The AOL Data Release: A Tipping Point?
8/16/2006
These folks aren’t exactly strong on environmental interests, either. In the entire database there are only 3 searches for “global warming” and 26 for “sustainability.”
It is very disappointing that there is not more of an outcry about the storage of this information over time in ways that make it identifiable to others. I know, I know, the commercial value of knowing what your customers are searching for and how they are doing it is tremendous.
On the other hand, also “tremendous” is our natural inclination to think that the things people search for are direct indications of their conscious thought. The fellow who started out looking for “how to murder your wife” may or may not be thinking of murdering his wife. But we are all convinced, in the absence of other evidence, that he was. This is not a good thing.
He didn’t do anything, except for basically thinking out loud. As my favorite singing artist, Leonard Cohen, sings in “Jazz Police,” “Jazz Police are looking through my folders. Jazz Police are talking to my niece. Jazz Police have their final orders.” Am I in trouble with the Jazz Police?
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