Ming Ding | Information Security and
Privacy Group | Data61, CSIROWhy privacy is important? –Two early cases
•The America Online (AOL) Case (2006)
➢https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/technology/22aol.html
➢AOL posted search queries from its clients on the web for research purposes
➢An individual was identified by NY Times reporters
➢Consequence: Job losses (CTO of AOL resigned and the researcher who posted the
dataset fired)
•The Netflix Case (2008)
➢https://www.wired.com/2009/12/netflix -privacy -lawsuit/
➢Linking the victim’s movie ratings in a publicly disclosed Netflix file (for a competition) to
another public movie ratings database.
➢At least one individual was identified by two researchers at University of Texas
➢Consequence: Netflix settled a class action lawsuit, with huge financial losses .