[Foundation-l] Release of squid log data

Sat Sep 15 17:57:52 UTC 2007

Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> On 9/15/07, Ben McIlwain <cydeweys at gmail.com> wrote:
> [snip]
> 
>>The AOL search data was
>>NOT tagged with pseudonymous data (by which I'm assuming you mean
>>usernames).  It was tagged with random numbers.  The way privacy was
>>compromised in the AOL search data scandal had nothing to do with what
>>the data was labeled as and everything to do with what the data was.
>>One could look at all of the searches made by a given person and clue in
>>on who they were - e.g. by looking for local subjects in their searches,
>>see if they searched for anyone by name (maybe themselves or people they
>>knew), see if they searched for any esoteric subjects, etc.
> 
> 
> A unique random ID is a pseudonym.  The ability to tie multiple
> searches to the same pseudonym was key, ... while I could guess the
> probably identity of a single search in some cases without any
> pseudonym it is, as you pointed out, the ability to tie them togeather
> which creates trouble.

What he said.

-- Tim Starling