Annalee Newitz writes in a recent Wired article (Privacy Debacle Hall of Fame) that AOL’s recent public release of 500,000 search queries, “may have been one of the dumbest privacy debacles of all time, but [that] it certainly wasn’t the first.” Newitz proceeds to list her top ten “privacy snafus” providing a good overview of each.

It is worth checking out her list from a personal privacy standpoint, but also from a business ethics and governance standpoint. Individuals are quite touchy about their privacy, and companies face considerable potential liabilities (theft, loss, breach of privacy, etc.) when they collect and store their customer’s information. Moreover, when a company chooses to make public or relinquish personal information in any manner, such as in the case of Google and Yahoo! releasing information on Chinese political dissidents to China’s government, the line separating right and wrong becomes increasingly complex and the need to define it correctly is imperative.

TAGS: Privacy | Ethics | Newitz | Wired | AOL | Google | Yahoo!

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