Penny Hero (dot) Net

Wow.

I didn’t even hear about this before now, but today while reading some of my work-related rss feeds, I came face-to-face with the story of AOL’s big screw up last July… and the fact that now they’re being sued for $5k a person-whose-data-was-released…

wow.

Here’s a link to the complaint and here’s a story and another story.

The “Factual Allegations” in the complaint outline the basic facts of what happened and the consequences of AOL’s mistake. (I read all of it. yeah. really I did.) It explains the basic mechanics of the search marketing business, how companies and regular people can (and have) profited improperly from the release of the data, and the types of potential damage that could still occur from it (including the steps necessary to connect the data with the real names, addresses, SSNs, etc of the searchers).

The thing that makes me sick is that AOL did nothing to make this up to their members once they started realizing what AOL did. All they did was offer members who complained a free month of service (this is even described in the suit). *boggles*

Item 23 describes what happened to one woman whose data was released and the New York Times apparently wrote an article about her after tracking her down THROUGH HER SEARCH DATA. Quote from the complaint:

Once identified, the reporters contacted the individual and asked her questions about her Internet Searches, which included…. As expressed, by the AOL member, her “whole personal life” was revealed. AOL’s response has been to do nothing. AOL has not even bothered to notify its members that their private communications have been released. AOL readily admits that the release of the Database was wrong. In AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein’s own words, “This was a screw up, and we’re angry and upset about it.”

Crazy. (the language-nerd in me cringes at the use of “AOL has not even bothered to…” because “not even bothered to” is not a very neutral way of describing AOL’s (lack of) response.)

Anyway… someone’s heads are probably rolling (three people lost/gave up their jobs over this incident already… I imagine a few more will too once this really heats up in court.)

Anyway… newsworthy, yes.

Distraction from work, yes.

Important? hell yeah.

I’m insanely stoked. Mark Danielewski is coming to Portland, and I get to leave work a little early to drive up there and see him. My plan is to get House of Leaves and The Whalestone Letters signed if possible, and buy Only Revolutions while I’m there. God I hope I’m brave enough to actually talk to him and ask him to sign my books. It was hard enough to be brave when I was part of CWS and meeting authors every month (omg, Dinner with Sherman Alexie!)… you’d think I’d be over my shyness by now.

Credit Where Credit is Due: Cepcion introduced me to House of Leaves a long time ago, and while I haven’t ACTUALLY finished it yet, it’s disturbing and powerful all the same. Amazon.com has a good editorial review that talks about the meta-novel structure and the crazy “sometimes you have to hold the pages backwards and in the mirror to read it” typography, or you can google Mark Danielewski and read about his crazy blue hair and social-networking++ way of getting fan participation for his new book, Only Revolutions.

I was a member of the Only Revolutions forums, but not an active participant because I joined way too late, and kept telling myself that I wanted to finish HOL before getting more involved… little did I know that time was running out.

So… according to the Only Revolutions Website (careful, lots of sound and animation!), he’ll be at Powell’s Books in Portland at 7:30pm TONIGHT to read from his new book!

I’ll be there.

Will you?

If you’re on last.fm, you should add me to your friend’s list. :)

Just ignore all the Nightmares on Wax and Animal Collective I apparently listen to. Back when I had no idea what I was doing (like a year ago), I left a music player on loop for a while… oops. Can’t edit it now apparently. I still love them, just not as much as last.fm thinks I do.

Anyway, I’m stoked about the open source client, all the plugins that will scrobble anything from pretty much any player out there, and the suggested 3rd party apps like Yamipod for uploading tracks you listened to with an ipod. Haven’t played with that too much yet, but it seems really great.

For the record, I’m also a fan of pandora, but for different reasons. I love pandora for being minimal and for being a pretty intelligent recommendation/radio system. On certain days, I’ll use both last.fm and pandora–one to find totally new music based on what their database picks (pandora), and the other to learn more about my friends’ tastes and to explore tagged music (last.fm). Last.fm is becoming highly addictive, but on days when maybe I just want to chill and take a break from omg! social networking! web2.0! rounded corners!!11!!, pandora rules.

Different monsters, both awesome and world-rawking. :)