Heads roll over AOL privacy leak

AOL's chief technology officer, Maureen Govern, who was responsible for the employees who released surfers' private search records, is leaving the company.

AOL released information on 20 million private search records earlier this month before removing the data and apologising for its actions.

Since the supposedly anonymous data was released, a 62 year-old widow in Georgia has been identified from her searches, and privacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation has called for a Federal Trade Commission investigation into AOL's privacy practices.

Govern's departure was announced in an internal memo to staff from AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller.

"I wanted to let you know that Maureen Govern, our chief technology officer, has decided to leave AOL effective immediately," Miller wrote.

"We have asked John McKinley to step back in as CTO. I want to thank John for coming back to manage this important function at a critical moment for AOL ."

In a separate memo, Miller explained the steps AOL intended to take to prevent further privacy leaks.

"This incident took place because some employees did not exercise good judgement or review their proposal with our privacy team. We are taking appropriate action with the employees who were responsible," Miller wrote.

"We are taking a number of additional steps, on top of our strong existing security systems, to help ensure that this type of incident never happens again. "

Miller announced that AOL is to create a taskforce, led by vice chairman Ted Leonsis and executive vice president and general counsel Randall Boe, to look into how long data should be saved and make recommendations to improve AOL's privacy policy.

The company will restrict access to databases containing sensitive member data, and implement new systems to ensure that private information is not included in research databases.

AOL will also implement education plans for all staff on how to protect sensitive information.

"There is a tremendous responsibility that goes with our mission of serving consumers online," Miller wrote. "[We have to] remember to always do the right thing to protect our users' privacy and maintain their trust."