Science Addiction

According to an article at Wired.com, “FBI personnel who used misleading emergency letters to acquire thousands of Americans’ phone records are the subject of a criminal investigation […] The privately disclosed investigation would mark the first time government officials have faced possible prosecution for misuse of Patriot Act investigative tools.”

Also- you can “help out the EFF”:http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005349.php go through the documents received via Freedom of Information Act requests regarding the FBI PATRIOT ACT abuses.

The repercussions of the “severe breach of trust by AOL”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2006/08/18/take-action-aol-privacy-and-the-database-of-intentions/ a few weeks ago, when they released the search records of more than 650,000 users, are beginning to be felt by those responsible.

“AP is reporting”:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060821/ap_on_hi_te/aol_search_privacy that three employees connected with the release of the records are no longer working for the company. The individual researcher and his/her supervisor have been fired and the chief technology officer Maureen Govern has either been fired or has resigned.

Holding individuals responsible is a good starting point, but is far from enough. This move only sends a signal to other employees within the company, but there is still no clear message for other companies with similar lax data retention and release policies. AOL must suffer heavy financial consequences so that every company that is entrusted with customer information considers it in their best interest to take that trust seriously. As things stand right now, there is only a vague threat of losing customers but unfortunately this is neither tangible nor obvious.