Today is a follow up on a couple of stories I reported on earlier.
First, Kevin Rose has spoken out on Business Week’s gross valuation of his company, Digg. Unlike what Business Week claimed on its cover, Rose says he’s not worth $60 million. He’s not worth any million. His company isn’t profitable and in truth, he says he can’t afford a couch for his apartment.
Following up on AOL’s accidental release of user search data, developers have already written Web applications to help you dig through the 439 megabytes of information. Voyeurs are having a field day pouring over the results. Although nobody is mentioned by name, they do have unique ID numbers. But given search behavior already one user has been identified. Another has proven himself to be quite perverted.
That would be user 927 who conducted searches on—and I’m not making this up—human mold, little dog sex, testicle festivals, and Disney porn.
Luckily for users like 927, there is a way to maintain your search privacy. To prevent a search engine from cataloguing your queries, set your browser to not accept cookies from your search engine of choice.
CNET has specifics on how to do this and alternative ways to protect your privacy when you search.
