I am going to file this one under, “Yikes!”

AOL recently released three months worth of search data to researchers. To “protect the privacy” of the searchers, their names were replaced by identifying numbers. Of course it isn’t too difficult to narrow down the identity of an “anonymous” searcher by looking at what they searched for. The author of this article in the New York Times did exactly that.

AOL has since taken down the data and apologized, but the damage has already been done. It has been copied and spread all over the internet now.

The point is that our privacy is slipping away. There are records of everything you do and it doesn’t take much for these records to get out. Be careful. Be outraged.

The Baltimore Business Journal made a shocking claim. It says that employees’ reluctance to telecommute costs them a lot of time and money.

They gleaned this information from the 2005/2006 National Technology Readiness Survey.

Of the survey respondents, 25% had employers that supported telecommuting or jobs that were conducive to telecommuting, but only 11% actually took advantage of telecommuting.

If the folks that could telecommute managed to do it once or twice a week, they would save a collective $3.9 billion in gas alone. This number doesn’t count wear and tear on the roads or pollution.

The median commute found in the study was 10 miles and 20 minutes each way.

The survey was prepared by Rockbridge Associates and sponsored by the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

The head of the VA reported that the stolen laptop with veterans’ personal information on it had been recovered.

If, as it appears, the data has not been compromised then this is good news for vets. However, I don’t see how it lets the VA off the hook for their shoddy data security practices.

They don’t need to forbid teleworking, they simply need to implement policies and practices to protect data. Some of these practices will include technology, some will include behavioral changes. All will include an awareness of security implications on the part of all who access or transport data.

Yeah. That’s billion with a “B”.

Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the world, announced that he is giving about $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (You know, the charitable foundation created by the richest man in the world.) Buffett is also giving about $7 billion to the charitable foundations of his wife and kids.

For those counting along at home, this leaves about $7 billion for those incidental expenses required as Warren winds his way through his senior years.

Wow!

I don’t really know what else to say. I just hope to do the same thing some day. I had better get started.