Brace Yourself - AOL to Enter Security Business

In the re-emergence of the Web, AOL got the attention it never imagined it would get, Microsoft and Google fighting for a share of its modest, but strategic amount of eyeballs. After being an exclusive part of Time Warner's balance sheet since its early acquisition, and with a $510M fine, dial-up business that was profitable by the time telecoms started offering cable connections, due to the years of infrastructure renovation, the though to be mature online advertising model is what saved it. Now, AOL is basically putting half its leg into the red hot security market and wisely playing it safe as :

"AOL plans to expand into security services with the release of the Active Security Monitor, expected on Thursday. The program would also check to make sure Internet Explorer is properly configured to prevent security holes. "ASM determines a security score for your PC, and for all other PCs in your home network, by evaluating the status of all the major components needed for a robust system: Anti-Virus software, Anti-Spyware software, Firewall protection, Wireless Security, Operating System, Web Browser, Back up software and PC Optimization."

After the scoring, I presume it would "phone back home" and let AOL know what end users are mostly missing, then a solution provided by AOL, or a licensee would follow. Benchmarking against AOL's understanding of application based security is tricky, and I bet you already know the programs necessary to establish common sense security on your PC/network. Who's next to enter the security industry besides Microsoft and AOL, perhaps DoubleClick?

CNET has naturally reviewed the Active Security Monitor.

What search engines know, or may find out about us?

Today, CNET's staff did an outstanding job of finding out what major search companies retain about their users. AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! respond on very well researched questions!

Whatever you do, just don't sacrifice innovation and trust in the current services for misjudged requests at the first place from my point of view.

At the bottom line, differentiate your Private Searches Versus Personally Identifiable Searches, consider visiting Root.net, and control your Clickstream. You can also go through Eric Goldman's comments on the issue and his open letter regarding Search Engines and China.

As a matter of fact, I have just came across a very disturbing fact that I compare with initiatives to mine blogs for marketing research, EPIC has the details on its front page. It was about time a private entity comes up with the idea given the potential and usability of the idea. Could such a concept spot, or actually seek for cyber dissidents in restrictive regimes with the idea to actually reach them, besides mining for extremists' data? I really hope so!

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