That episode (releasing the AOL search query log file for research purposes and subsequent aftermath) led to some firings at the company, but some information r

That episode (releasing the AOL search query log file for research purposes and subsequent aftermath) led to some firings at the company, but some information retrieval searchers used this log to conduct important experiments. The "60s lady with the dog that kept peeing her sofa" got her hour of fame, and the whole thing became a case study in de-anonymization. A few pointers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_log_release https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_log_release https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233390862_Privacy_Preserving_Web_Query_Log_Publishing_A_Survey_on_AnonymizationTechniques https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233390862_Privacy_P... https://github.com/wasiahmad/aol_query_log_analysis https://github.com/wasiahmad/aol_query_log_analysis https://www.technologyreview.com/2006/08/15/100592/who-benefits-from-aols-released-search-logs/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2006/08/15/100592/who-benef... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0020025509000516 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00200... https://isquared.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/mining-search-logs-for-usage-patterns/ https://isquared.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/mining-search-logs...