AOL, which is struggling to re-define it's business model under the weight of a 30% drop in paid subscribers and the expectation of laying off more than 3,000 employees, has found itself in the middle of a privacy broughhaha.  What AOL did to cause such a stir was release a database of 20 million online search inquiries collected over a three month period.  The database didn't include any names, but just assigned each user a number.  So their privacy was protected, right?

A news report recently revealed that sensitive personal information about current and former residents of Broward County, Florida have been posted on the county's website.  Broward County is just the tip of the iceberg.  Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, bank account details, and digital copies of personal signatures are increasingly becoming available online by thoughtless public servants who believe they are simply making public documents available to the public.

My kids have adopted the use of the slang term "TMI" whenever a topic comes up that they don't want to hear about.  TMI is short for "Too Much Information".  Sometimes, they apparently believe, what they don't know can't hurt them.

The corollary to that is that "what you DO know CAN hurt.  At what point does the government have too much personal information? Even if it has a legitimate use for the personal information, does the danger of allowing government officials to have the information at their fingertips outweigh these legitimate benefits?

Bob Ambrogi reports that the Justice Department is asking a federal court to compel Google to turn over records of millions of its users' search queries is shocking and disturbing. Worse yet, America Online, Yahoo and MSN have already complied with the subpoena.