Palin Not Mutually Inclusive

 In 2006, AOL did something that most people have never heard about, which is an odd concept in a digital age where information spreads uncontrollably. The only way not to learn about something anymore is to not seek it out. It appears that many people weren't too concerned with the fact that thousands of individuals' privacy was compromised when AOL released its search logs to researchers. The logs were supposed to have been stripped of identifying data, but search engines everywhere were taught a grave lesson when reconstruction efforts allowed researchers to pinpoint the identities of many so-called "de-identified" AOL users. Search engine companies, digital pioneers, and privacy advocates alike were taught an important lesson in 2006; no one is safe, and old notions of "privacy" have become obsolete.

 But MIT professors and ACLU lawyers weren't the only ones interested in the results. Ars Technica has taken note of two Dutch filmmakers who have taken a particular interest in 711391, dedicating the "I Love Alaska" series of 13 short movies to her eccentric search strings. Her digital fingerprints paint the portrait of her life, and each are presented in an appropriately post-modern style; "short and stark, each shows a barren landscape while a narrator reads through the actual list of search queries," the films take the task of context out of the hands of the filmmaker and lay it upon the viewer. It is up to each of us to reconstruct 711391's life in whatever manner comes to mind. It is an exercise in creativity and education on issues of privacy and personal liberty that we tend to evade.