An act of generosity (releasing the search histories for 658,000 users) has turned sour, because the searches included AOL usernames, disguised by a number. But you could still see all the searches each person made, and many people search for their own name...

"it apparently took The New York Times less than three days to track down Thelma Arnold, formerly known as "User No. 4417749," interview and photograph her--and she was just one of many thousands the paper undoubtedly could have unmasked"

Oh dear....

Attention all staff. Do not release anything to the public, not even a support email, without our legal team vetting it first!