[UFO Chicago] Why You Should Delete Those Cookies

[Neil R. Ormos]

Reported in an article in The New York Times:

> A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749
> By MICHAEL BARBARO and TOM ZELLER Jr.
> Published: August 9, 2006

> Buried in a list of 20 million Web search
> queries collected by AOL and recently released
> on the Internet is user No. 4417749. The number
> was assigned by the company to protect the
> searcher's anonymity, but it was not much of a
> shield.

> No. 4417749 conducted hundreds of searches over
> a three-month period [ . . . ] And search by
> search, click by click, the identity of AOL user
> No. 4417749 became easier to discern. [ . . . ]
> It did not take much investigating to follow
> that data trail to Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old
> widow who lives in Lilburn, Ga., frequently
> researches her friends' medical ailments and
> loves her three dogs. "Those are my searches,"
> she said, after a reporter read part of the list
> to her. [ . . . ]

  <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html>