Netflix

(Credit: Flickr / thebluedino)

In 2006, Netflix released over 100 million movie ratings made by 500,000 subscribers to their online DVD rental service. The company then offered $1 million to anyone who could improve the company's system of DVD recommendation. In order to protect its customers' privacy, Netflix anonymized the data set by removing any personal details.

Researchers

Big Brother

(Credit: Flickr / surfstyle)

The announcement by researchers of their Netflix project is so recent that it has yet to be seen how the company will respond. The data has been public for over a year, and With a $1 million prize, the release almost certainly required the sign-off from executives (and so the company cannot blame rogue researchers as AOL did). While search engine logs are obviously extremely sensitive, video rental records are also very private. Enough so that Congress has given video rental records a

The Real AT&T

(Credit: EFF)

The Federal Communications Commission ordered AT&T to begin offering stand-alone DSL service as one of a handful of conditions that allowed for the merger of SBC Communications and AT&T in October 2005. While it technically met the conditions it agreed to, the services were offered at such an obscenely high price that few actually opted to drop their telephone service.

The company has been widely criticized in the past for its unbundled service pricing structures. Back in 2006, the company began offering stand-alone DSL for $44.99 a month. At the same time, the company offered bundled DSL service for $29.99 a month, but subscribers were also required to purchase telephone service in a package that totaled about $46 a month. Customers could essentially