The only employee named by the sources was chief technology officer Maureen Govern, a relative newbie at the company, hired last September to head up the division that ultimately released the data.

In addition, a researcher and a manager overseeing the research were also let go, but without the embarrassment heaped on their higher-up CTO. They were unnamed in the article.

AOL Research posted the data in question weeks ago, with the stated intention of aiding the branches of academia that study searcher behavior. Once the rest of the Internet discovered it, some time after it’s posting, the situation went severely pear-shaped.

Almost immediately, mirror sites popped up allowing anybody to search through the data, in which user names were replaced with unique ID numbers. It took the New York Times less than a week to connect the search queries enough to identify an AOL user.

The situation has been one of massive embarrassment for the company, reigniting debate on how much data and how long search engine companies can store personally identifying user information.

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The EFF posted the guidelines on their website, a laundry lists of do’s and don’ts that remind the reader that the only surefire way to remain private on the Internet is to not go on the Internet. But that won’t do at all, will it?

Guidelines include refraining from searching with queries containing personally identifying information (which will put a damper on your ego-surfing), shunning your ISP’s search engine, avoiding personalized search accounts, and refusing cookies.

The EFF filed a complaint with the FTC this week, asking the agency to investigate AOL, require changes to the company’s privacy policy, and force AOL to notify all affected users. The nonprofit organization argued that not only had AOL violated user privacy but also the Federal Trade Commission Act.

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