In a previous followup, A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749 Zeller and fellow reporter Michael Barbaro explained how trails in the supposedly "headless" data in the search engine files could be followed backwards to find and identify the person who did the searches. Then, the question becomes-- if a person, in this case, Thelma Arnold, AOL Searcher No. 4417749, searches for information on health problems, (and for now ignoring the question of how and whether an insurer should have access to that information at all) should an insurer be able to use that information to deny or raise your rates?

At first glance, it might appear that Ms. Arnold fears she is suffering from a wide range of ailments. Her search history includes "hand tremors," "nicotine effects on the body," "dry mouth" and "bipolar." But in an interview, Ms. Arnold said she routinely researched medical conditions for her friends to assuage their anxieties. Explaining her queries about nicotine, for example, she said: "I have a friend who needs to quit smoking and I want to help her do it."

Privacy expert Dan Solove, a law professor and author of the book The Digital Person, also has a good piece on the AOL debacle and the questions it raises, over at his blog Concurring Opinions.