News comes after massive privacy breach at the struggling web portal.
August 21, 2006
Responding to the uproar over the release of web-search data from thousands of
its users, AOL fired its chief technology officer and two others on Monday,
according to a report.
A spokesperson for AOL did not immediately respond to calls requesting comment.
Maureen Govern, AOL’s chief technology officer since September, will be leaving
the company immediately, according to The Wall Street Journal. In addition, AOL
is said to have fired a researcher and a manager overseeing the project that
resulted in the release.
The release, which occurred earlier this month, involved the disclosure of
search queries from more than 600,000 AOL users made over three months this
year.
The search portal had planned to make the data available only to researchers as
part of an effort to help the academic community develop new search tools.
However, the data ended up on a web page that anyone could access.
“This was a screw-up, and we’re angry and upset about it,” AOL spokesman Andrew
Weinstein said shortly after the data was released.
Publicity Nightmare
Reporters from The New York Times quickly used the information to track down one
user.
Others combed through the data, picking out particularly strange combinations of
search queries.
Web site Valleywag even published a regular feature, titled “AOL Creepy User
Watch.”
Now, privacy activists are calling on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to step
in.
"We've asked the FTC to make sure that AOL rectifies the damage that's been done
and improve its privacy protections for the future," EFF Staff Attorney Kevin
Bankston said in a statement. "But this problem isn't limited to AOL -- every
search company stores this kind of data.”
Shares of AOL parent company Time Warner were little changed in recent trading,
rising $0.05 to $16.45.
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=18070&hed=Report%3A+AOL+Fires+CTO§or=Industries&subsector=EntertainmentAndMedia
