The Ashley Madison scandal - your thoughts?

[Master_Craig]

Hey guys. I'm sure you've all heard of that recent Ashley Madison scandal, how the website was hacked and now the information of registered users is pretty much being unleashed to the public.

In all honesty, I have never had of "Ashley Madison" until I picked up the local news paper a few days ago.

From my understanding, Ashley Madison is a website for people who are already in relationships/marriages but are looking to hook up with other people, cheat on their partners. Their slogan is "Life is short, have an affair."

There are apparently millions of registered users and judging from the statistics seen on the news because of this hack, I'm very surprised to see the high numbers in Australia, particularly in the cities down south. In all fairness, a lot of these registered e-mails could be fake e-mails, stolen e-mails or bots, as apparently the website does not require users to validate their e-mails upon registration.

Apparently, the hackers threatened the website, telling them to take it down and stop what they're doing or else they would hack the site and get that data. The website of course, continued to run. The hackers then went through with their threat, wanting to stop the company whilst "teaching its users a lesson".

What are your thoughts on this?

On one hand, what the hackers are doing is completely illegal, they're gaining access to people's private information without their consent (let alone knowledge - until now) and spreading the information out to the public.

On the other hand... the people on this website are trying to cheat on their significant other. In my opinion, if you have a problem with your partner, then the problem needs to be looked at with an attempt at resolution, or you break up. I think if people are trying to cheat on their partner and they think there will be no consequence of any sort, then they are arrogant and naive. Furthermore, this website is making a lot of money, profiting from people who are doing a very wrong thing. To me that seems like a very twisted way to make money, e.g. "People are cheating on people and because of that, we're rich as fuck".

I'm very torn on this. I feel hypocritical. I feel like while the hackers have done the wrong, illegal thing, I feel that the website - and its users, kinda deserve it.

What are your thoughts? I'm interested in having a discussion on this one.

 

[Paradox]

I feel the same; the hackers did bad, but the users had it coming. Saw this skit on Conan last night, thought it was funny.

 

[Sourdeez]

What I do know is AM offered a service to delete your profile and all data of you for $20. We now know that the service actually didn't delete the data. :roll:

 

[Master_Craig]

I feel the same; the hackers did bad, but the users had it coming. Saw this skit on Conan last night, thought it was funny.

Just watched the skit, that was pretty funny.

What I do know is AM offered a service to delete your profile and all data of you for $20. We now know that the service actually didn't delete the data. :roll:

Not gonna lie but man, that's kinda funny too. >.<

 

[UghRochester]

I used the website for cheating on my test scores.

 

[UrbanMasque]

No one mourns the wicked. fucking creepers.especially when exposing the hypocritical nature of the people we vote on to legislate our morals. I just want someone to paste bin the entire email list so that I can go through it because i need confirmation on a few hunches.

As someone who has cheated and been cheated on - I think this is great, Look - If you're THAT unsavvy about how you conduct your nefarious dealings... And you're desperate enough to pay for a subscription based fling - you deserve to get caught. After having cheated and seen how much it broke my then gf's heart - I VOWED to never do it again (that was high school and i've kept my track record up).

But for the email list - Nothing is going to happen as a result because people are hypocrits and don't follow through on anything. They'll be temporary uproar but nothing more - just look at the legislators in Michigan (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/m ... 21217.html)

Look, when you get married - thats it game over. If you still feel the need to be adulterous after marraige then your partner needs to be ok with opening it up. No BS - The games end. Find someone you can be open with (in all aspects) because when things inevitably become stale - she/he needs to be ok with spicing it up or introducing new frontiers.

but what do I know.

tl;dr - plan better

 

[GRColin]

I'm kind of in the minority here. This whole thing is wrong. One of the more minor issues is not everyone who uses AM is married. There are single men and women who use it as an alternative to other dating sites because it's advertised as a place where you can be more free in your sexuality, something that other dating sites don't offer.

More importantly however is the leak of information in general. Yes, cheating is wrong. Yes, these men and women shouldn't have signed up - But let's not forget what this is - illegally obtained personal, private data that has been leaked on the internet. It's easy to say those who have cheated deserve it but let's not forget the legality of all of it.

Now the hackers are blackmailing people as well:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/21/91890 ... il-bitcoin

The're asking individuals to send them BTC or else they'll send their spouse the information. Do you also agree with that tactic?

I don't condone cheating in any way, shape or form but to say that they're cheaters so this is okay is rather narrow in view. Sure, they deserve what's coming to them but look at the bigger picture - We live in an age where any and all information is subject to compromise and instead of focusing our attention on that, we're talking about how awesome it is cheaters won't prosper.

 

[UrbanMasque]

Your personal information is only as secure as the server its housed on.

This is like drug dealers extorting other drug dealers and hookers. They know that the other person is doing dirt and can't rightly go to the cops - so they've got them by the balls, but if you didn't live in that world they wouldn't have anything to extort.

There is a difference in people getting private picture and nudes shared intimately between two people vs. getting your laundry aired out because you were doing dirt behind your spouses back - WE HAVE TO MAKE THAT DISTINCTION. Not all hacks are created equal. Also, the hackers aren't using this data - the nefarious types of the world are - he is the info, what you choose to do with it is up to you.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

It's more like someone setting up a camera in front of someone else's porn shop and then sending the video out after.

 

[Optimus-Crime]

There was a lawsuit a few years back claiming 90% of the female profiles were fakes, and they're right, they are fakes.

It's kinda funny. Google it.

 

[drathbone]

Anybody who's in IT knows that the only true way to prevent recovery of data from a drive is physical destruction of the hardware.

The $20 account wipe was a scam within the bigger scam.

 

[madster111]

What I do know is AM offered a service to delete your profile and all data of you for $20.

You know, i'm 99% sure this is actually illegal in the EU and Aus.

Anybody who used this shit knowing they were a lite version of the fucking mob (can't leave the family) deserves all that they get.

 

[MattAY]

If the hackers get caught it will be the perfect feel-good story!
I fucking hate hackers.

Apart from that whole fappening thing...that was genius!

 

[intoTheRain]

On one hand I'm happy, on the other I know it's still wrong.

I'm happy a bunch of marriages are ending that shouldn't have been marriages at all. I'm sad people are choosing to kill themselves because their scummy spouse was cheating.

Someone needs to start a dating sites for victims of the Ashley Madison hack. Where the ones who were not cheating can meet and date.

I wonder how many couples found out BOTH were on Ashley Madison. Maybe it brought them closer together lol.

And of course the hackers were wrong to do it. And it's illegal, yada yada. But if there was one thing I'd say is a reasonable target to hack, Ashley Madison would be high on the list I'm sure.

 

[GRColin]

I'm happy a bunch of marriages are ending.

I agree with a lot save for this. It's sad when a marriage ends. I get what you're saying, they get to move on and find someone who won't cheat (hopefully) but to be happy, man...Imagine the emotional pain that spouse is going through.

The people committing suicide, weren't they the ones who cheated? Not the spouse?

And just because you're cheated on, you shouldn't run out and do the same thing.

 

[intoTheRain]

I'm happy a bunch of marriages are ending.

I agree with a lot save for this. It's sad when a marriage ends. I get what you're saying, they get to move on and find someone who won't cheat (hopefully) but to be happy, man...Imagine the emotional pain that spouse is going through.

The people committing suicide, weren't they the ones who cheated? Not the spouse?

And just because you're cheated on, you shouldn't run out and do the same thing.

honestly don't know the bold, just assumed it would be the ones who were cheated on. so my bad if I was wrong. if so pretty sad they were able to live with the guilt of making their spouse out to be a fool, and getting smashed on the side. but not the guilt of getting caught.

as for what you disagree with sure. it's sad. but in the end like you said hopefully they will find someone who won't cheat and be happier. sad short term, hopefully happy long term.



and i'm not suggesting they make a website where the partners who were cheated on can counter cheat. I'm assuming the ones who were cheated on are divorcing and moving on (i hope). i'm sure some will work it out. some because they can and can work through it. some because they don't have a backbone.

but having a website where the people who did move on and leave their partner can connect with someone in a similar situation would be neat IMO.

edit: i just realized on this forum sometimes I capitalize everything properly. and other times I just decide capitalization is overrated. sp00ky