It will be interesting to see if the court case ultimately finds that everyone should receive payment, given the potential harm they suffered, or if it will only pay to those who prove in some way they actually were personally identifiable or had personal information released in some way because of AOL's actions. Perhaps there will be a compromise between the two, if the case succeeds.

Aside from cash payouts, the case also wants AOL to enforce a license prohibiting commercial and non-research user of the data, plus wants the material removed from internet search engines (which means, really, getting it off the internet itself). It also seeks to prevent AOL from storing any type of web search data and to destroy any already in its possession.