I knew (or was at least acquainted with) Declan back in college. I happened to catch him on the radio the other day. You can listen to the whole clip here (RealPlayer).

Here is the transcript of the bit where Declan talks:

Careful what you search for
(Janet Babin, Marketplace)

Declan McCullagh with Cnet News dot com got hold of the AOL search records made public on the Internet. He reviewed thousands of anonymous queries. And he believes he could figure out who some of those people are simply by their searches about themselves, their neighborhoods and their relatives. Here’s some of what he found.

DECLAN MCCULLAGH: “Things like illegal child porn, incest stories, preteen sex stories, how to get revenge on my ex-boyfriend, dirty tricks for chicks . . .”

McCullagh says few people realize just how much information can be gleaned from their computers.

MCCULLAGH: “If you’re using a cable modem or a computer at work it’s unique and tied to you for over say a multi-year period. It’s as unique as your phone number, and everything you do with that IP address, that Internet protocol address, can be traced back to you.”

Now come on… can any of you who knew Declan in college listen to that clip and not have the first thing that comes into your mind be that Declan is not describing searches he found in what AOL released, but rather just his own searches? Um, just me? OK. Never mind. :-)