Those who still think that ostensibly "anonymized" data - the type that the U.S. government is seeking (and sometimes getting) from search providers - protects searchers' privacy, should consider the case of AOL searcher No. 4417749.

Among the 20 million or so search queries by some 650,000 AOL subscribers recently released by AOL are those by user No. 4417749, who, it turns out, is Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old widow who lives in Lilburn, Ga., reports the New York Times. Her identity was pieced together from the hundreds of her searches over a three month period. "It did not take much investigating," the Times writes.

AOL's gaffe has shown how risky it can be for companies like AOL, Google and Yahoo to compile such data - which they use to track users' behavior to, for example, target advertising. And it points to a real cause for concern regarding privacy rights when the government comes snooping around.

Nevertheless, as CNET points out, searches by some users are sometimes downright disturbing. Among searches by AOL user No. 59920, who apparently lives in the Boulder, Colo., area: cats skinned in fort lupton co, jonbenets autopsy photos, what a neck looks like after its been strangled, new jersey park police, rope to use to hog tie someone, body transport boulder Colorado.