[Air-l] ethics -- aol data

[Jonathan Cornwell]

In light of the discussion on AOL, privacy, etc., I saw a snippet on a show
called "Someone's Watching" on Discovery-Times Channel in which a doctor
talked about selling the names and addresses of women who came in for yeast
infections to a pharmaceutical company that was marketing OTC remedies. As I
was rushing to get my son to school, I wasn't able to see more than that.
Has anyone else seen this show?

I'm posting because in this thread has been the mention of medical
information as one class of private personal information. I would think that
such actions as above are both legal and ethical violations. Is this true?

Another question directly related to the thread: AOL is a subscription
service while Google is free. Does this change the privacy issue at all? In
other words, does the exchange of money for services with AOL place user
data in a different legal framework than the free services of Google?

Thanks,
Jonathan Cornwell