AOL fires employees over search data scandal

Arstechnica Reports;
Sometimes high-tech failures call for old-fashioned remedies, which explains why the heads are beginning to roll at AOL headquarters. The corporate guillotine has been wheeled out to deal with the apocalyptic fallout from AOL's infamous decision to release "anonymous" search data on hundreds of thousands of users for research purposes.

The miniature purge kicked out CTO Maureen Govern, who didn't survive a full year at AOL. Govern was brought onboard last September after then-CTO John McKinley was promoted to the top of the AOL Digital Services group. With Govern's departure, McKinley will resume CTO duties on an interim basis.

In addition, the employee who released the data and his supervisor in AOL reSearch were also shown the door. The reSearch site remains inaccessible for the moment, as well.

The damage from the scandal has already been done, meaning that efforts at damage control (such as the company's new privacy policy task force) are largely beside the point. After fierce criticism of the data release on the Internet, AOL could also be in for some regulatory trouble—the EFF recently filed an FTC complaint against AOL for deceptive and unfair trade practices.

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