As reported on ZDNet:

“Two AOL employees have been fired, and its chief technology officer is resigning, after the release of Web search data from thousands of AOL members prompted widespread criticism of the company“

Taking the fall, perhaps? It does seem a bit odd, given this failure has more to do with a system that collects and stores such sensitive, identifiable data.

“I don’t think firing employees is going to be a solution to the problem. It appears that these data disclosures were a symptom of a more systemic problem at AOL regarding data handling policies and practices”