User 927

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

User 927 is the anonymous, now-notorious AOL user whose search results were released along with 658,000 others by America Online in August 2006.[1][2] AOL posted unabridged three-month search logs of a broad sampling of registered users on a parallel "research" site, but an outcry from the Internet community[3] quickly prompted AOL to issue an official apology on August 7, 2006.[1][4]

One product of the AOL scandal was the proliferation of blog entries examining the exposed data. Certain users' search logs were identified as humorous, disturbing, or even dangerous.[5]

Consumer watchdog website The Consumerist posted an blog entry by editor Ben Popken identifying the anonymous user number 927 as having an especially chilling search history.[6] The blog posting has since been viewed nearly 4,000 times and referenced on a number of other high-profile sites.[7]

In addition to sparking the interest of the Internet community, User 927 inspired a theatrical production, written by Katharine Clark Gray in Philadelphia. The play, also named User 927, has since been cited on several of the same blogs that originally discovered the real user's existence.[1][8][9][10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Kathy, Matheson. "New play explores what search reveals about us", USA Today, Gannett Company, 6 June 2008. Retrieved on 2008-06-07. 
  2. ^ Kawamoto, Dawn; Elinor Mills. "AOL apologizes for release of user search data", CNET News, CNET Networks, August 7, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-06-07. 
  3. ^ Arrington, Michael (August 6, 2006). "AOL Proudly Releases Massive Amounts of Private Data" (blog). TechCrunch. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
  4. ^ Arrington, Michael (August 7, 2006). "AOL: 'This was a screw up'" (blog). TechCrunch. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
  5. ^ Frind, Markus (July 7, 2006). "AOL Search Data Shows Users Planning to commit Murder" (blog). The Paradigm Shift. WordPress.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
  6. ^ Popken, Ben (July 7, 2006). "AOL User 927 Illuminated" (blog). The Consumerist. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
  7. ^ "AOL User 927: Scariest AOL user search record". Tech News. Digg. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
  8. ^ "User 927: U are what U seek". Home page. Brat Productions. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
  9. ^ Battelle, John (May 5, 2008). "User 927" (blog). John Battelle's Searchblog. Battelle Media. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
  10. ^ Popken, Ben (April 29, 2008). "AOL User 927, The Theatrical Production" (blog). The Consumerist. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.