AOL Search Leak

How long does it take for private search keywords displayed naked on a website to get mirrored across internet? A few seconds indeed, but the damage was done.  AOL took a whole 72 hours to accept their mistake and yank the file out of data base. What AOL had done was unforgivable. Search keywords along with user details collected over a period of 3 years was made available on the website. In September 2006, a class action lawsuit was filed - that's still lingering in California courts -- against AOL demanding $5,000 per user.

Google Street View! Oops it’s Private

You are leaving a night pub and the picture appears on Google’s Street View. How upsetting is that! Google StreetView since its launch has made its owner Google battle privacy complaints, pay fines and face audits ever since. Google Street View provides panoramic views of streets taken by webcams placed in different positions. So what did Google actually do? It pasted pictures and raised privacy concerns as men leaving strip clubs, pubs, with sunbathers, snooping out of their hoses were all captured and used.  According to PCWorld, A Swiss court has ruled that Google is breaching citizens' right to privacy with its Street View service and should take greater steps to obscure people caught by its cameras.

Hot Mess by Hotmail

This mess termed the largest in terms of scale involved Microsoft's Hotmail free e-mail service. It was a disaster when www.pastebin.com  displayed around 10.000 emails detailed information in the year 2009. Hotmail was seen requesting the users to change password and ID.This Phishing scam resulted in Microsoft requesting their users to change password every 90 days.