|  AOL
blunder a revelation for 650,000
Just as Time Warner's
AOL unit is reaching out to try to get more users by providing services
free, the internet service provider has admitted to the kind of
gaffe likely to scare them away.
It inadvertently revealed what 650,000 of its subscribers searched
for as they browsed for online information.
The searches often contained data that helped identify the users
themselves, including names, social security numbers and local landmarks
that they had looked up. 'This was a screw-up, and we're angry and
upset about it," AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said.
The information was posted as a downloadable file called "500Kusers.tgz"
on a website, research.aol.com. It was only when a number of blogs
began linking to the site over the weekend that AOL removed the
file, which contained 19 million queries made from March 1 to May
31. By then, copies of the file and its contents were circulating
over the internet. Some AOL users might now be more inclined to
read through the company's privacy policy and opt out of having
their searches tracked.
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