Above, is the trailer for a Netflix docuseries, showing on May.15th, about the "Adult" site Ashley Madison that was hacked and some of the repercussions following the Data Breach..
You can bet, having been a member of another "Adult" site, once it airs, the term "Netflix and Chill" is precisely what I shall be doing and Binge watching it..
I myself was not a member of any type of Adult site until 2014. I had found out my LTR after 8 years was cheating on me. I kicked him to the curb because we were not an "Open relationship" couple, nor were we swingers. It hurt like Hell at the time and now has me wondering if he had been a member of Ashley Madison at one time..That was so long ago and far away from present day 2024 and he was no "Superstar."
What happened on Ashley Madison eventually and the Data Breach with the site being a Canadian one which I never knew, just kind of blew me away.. It reminds me of AFF as there are even now, so many similarities. Here are a few which I copied and pasted from Wikipedia.
Ashley Madison, or The Ashley Madison Agency, is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service. It was launched in 2002 and marketed to people who are married (or people in relationships) who are looking for affairs.[3] The website's slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair."[2]
The website has been widely condemned for being a "business built on the back of broken hearts",[4] and is also believed to lie about the size of its userbase by "creating fake accounts, or not stopping others from creating fake accounts".[5] AFF anyone?
Ashley Madison gained notoriety in 2015 when it was subject to a data breach and the personal information of millions of users was released to the public.[6]
Ashley Madison
 | |
Type of site | Online dating service Social network service |
|---|---|
| Available in | Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish (European, American), Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian |
| Founder(s) | Darren Morgenstern |
| Key people | Paul Keable (Chief Strategy Officer) Brian Offenheim (Vice President of Creative and Design) Haze Deng (Chief Revenue Officer) George Al-Koura (Chief Information Security Officer) Srdjan Milutinovic (Chief Information Officer) |
| Parent | Ruby Corp. |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Yes |
| Users | 60 million (as of February 2019)[1] |
| Launched | January 21, 2002[2] |
| Current status | Active |
Ashley Madison, or The Ashley Madison Agency, is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service. It was launched in 2002 and marketed to people who are married (or people in relationships) who are looking for affairs.[3] The website's slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair."[2]
The website has been widely condemned for being a "business built on the back of broken hearts",[4] and is also believed to lie about the size of its userbase by "creating fake accounts, or not stopping others from creating fake accounts".[5]
Ashley Madison gained notoriety in 2015 when it was subject to a data breach and the personal information of millions of users was released to the public.[6]
History[edit]
Ashley Madison was founded in 2002 by Darren J. Morgenstern. The name comes from two popular female names in North America, "Ashley" and "Madison".[2]
On July 15, 2015, hackers stole all of its customer data—including emails, names, home addresses, sexual fantasies, and credit card information—and threatened to post the data online if Ashley Madison and fellow Avid Life Media site Established Men were not permanently closed.[3] By July 22, the first set of customer names was released by hackers,[7] with all of the user data released on August 18, 2015. More data (including some of the CEO's emails) was released on August 20, 2015. The release included data from customers who had previously paid a $19 fee to Ashley Madison to supposedly have their data deleted.[8] The fee was also applied to people who had accounts set up against their will, as a workplace prank, or because of a mistyped email address.[9]
On August 28, 2015, Noel Biderman agreed to step down as chief executive officer of Avid Life Media Inc.[10] A statement released by the firm said his departure was "in the best interest of the company".[11]
In July 2016, parent company Avid Life Media re-branded itself to Ruby Corp. and appointed Rob Segal as its new CEO.[12] In the same month, the company changed its signature tagline from "Life is Short. Have an Affair." to "Find your moment",[3] and updated its brand imagery to replace the image of a woman wearing a wedding ring with a red gem-shaped symbol as its logo.[13][14][15]
By 2017, CEO Rob Segal and President James Millership had resigned from their respective roles.
In May 2017, Ashley Madison unretired the tagline "Life is short. Have an affair", and the image of the married woman, symbolic of the company's returned focus on married dating.[16] In February 2019, the company announced it had reached the 60-million-member mark.[1] In a 2019 interview, Ashley Madison's Chief Strategy Officer Paul Keable stated that the service helps create up to one million affairs every month.[17]
Ashley Madison
| |
Type of site | Online dating service Social network service |
|---|---|
| Available in | Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish (European, American), Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian |
| Founder(s) | Darren Morgenstern |
| Key people | Paul Keable (Chief Strategy Officer) Brian Offenheim (Vice President of Creative and Design) Haze Deng (Chief Revenue Officer) George Al-Koura (Chief Information Security Officer) Srdjan Milutinovic (Chief Information Officer) |
| Parent | Ruby Corp. |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Yes |
| Users | 60 million (as of February 2019)[1] |
| Launched | January 21, 2002[2] |
| Current status | Active |
Ashley Madison, or The Ashley Madison Agency, is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service. It was launched in 2002 and marketed to people who are married (or people in relationships) who are looking for affairs.[3] The website's slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair."[2]
The website has been widely condemned for being a "business built on the back of broken hearts",[4] and is also believed to lie about the size of its userbase by "creating fake accounts, or not stopping others from creating fake accounts".[5]
Ashley Madison gained notoriety in 2015 when it was subject to a data breach and the personal information of millions of users was released to the public.[6]
History[edit]
Ashley Madison was founded in 2002 by Darren J. Morgenstern. The name comes from two popular female names in North America, "Ashley" and "Madison".[2]
On July 15, 2015, hackers stole all of its customer data—including emails, names, home addresses, sexual fantasies, and credit card information—and threatened to post the data online if Ashley Madison and fellow Avid Life Media site Established Men were not permanently closed.[3] By July 22, the first set of customer names was released by hackers,[7] with all of the user data released on August 18, 2015. More data (including some of the CEO's emails) was released on August 20, 2015. The release included data from customers who had previously paid a $19 fee to Ashley Madison to supposedly have their data deleted.[8] The fee was also applied to people who had accounts set up against their will, as a workplace prank, or because of a mistyped email address.[9]
On August 28, 2015, Noel Biderman agreed to step down as chief executive officer of Avid Life Media Inc.[10] A statement released by the firm said his departure was "in the best interest of the company".[11]
In July 2016, parent company Avid Life Media re-branded itself to Ruby Corp. and appointed Rob Segal as its new CEO.[12] In the same month, the company changed its signature tagline from "Life is Short. Have an Affair." to "Find your moment",[3] and updated its brand imagery to replace the image of a woman wearing a wedding ring with a red gem-shaped symbol as its logo.[13][14][15]
By 2017, CEO Rob Segal and President James Millership had resigned from their respective roles.
In May 2017, Ashley Madison unretired the tagline "Life is short. Have an affair", and the image of the married woman, symbolic of the company's returned focus on married dating.[16] In February 2019, the company announced it had reached the 60-million-member mark.[1] In a 2019 interview, Ashley Madison's Chief Strategy Officer Paul Keable stated that the service helps create up to one million affairs every month.[17]
Membership[edit]
Ashley Madison is a membership website and service based in Canada; its membership includes more than 60 million people in 53 countries.[7]
The company announced plans to launch in Singapore in 2014.[18] However, Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA) announced that it would not allow Ashley Madison to operate in Singapore as "it promotes adultery and disregards family values".[19]
Business model[edit]
Unlike Match.com or eHarmony, Ashley Madison's business model is based on credits ( points on AFF.) rather than monthly subscriptions. For a conversation between two members, one of the members, always the man, must pay eight credits to initiate the conversation. Any follow-up messages between the two members are complimentary after starting communication. Ashley Madison also has a real-time chat feature where credits buy a certain time allotment.
The site allows users to hide their account profiles for free. Users looking to delete their accounts, even those made without the individual's consent, are charged a $19 fee.[9][20] The "full delete" option claims to remove user profiles, all messages sent and received, site usage history, personally identifiable information, and photos.[21] The data disclosures in 2015 revealed that this "permanent deletion" feature did not permanently delete anything, and all data was recoverable.[citation needed]
Criticism[edit]
Trish McDermott, a consultant who helped found Match.com, accused Ashley Madison of being a "business built on the back of broken hearts, ruined marriages, and damaged families".[4] Biderman responded by stating that the site is "just a platform" and a website or a commercial will not convince anyone to commit adultery.[2][22] According to Biderman, affairs help preserve many marriages.[23]
Guarantee[edit]
Ashley Madison offered a guarantee that users will "find someone": "we GUARANTEE that you will successfully find what you're looking for or we'll give you your money back."[24] To qualify, users had to purchase the most expensive package, send more expensive "priority" messages to 18 unique members each month for three months, send five Ashley Madison gifts per month, and engage in 60 minutes of paid chat per month. Compounding the problem is that "more men than women use the service, with the disparity increasing as they advance in age", and "Men seek sex, while women seek passion."[25] A page on Ashley Madison, entitled "Is Ashley Madison a scam? Is Ashley Madison a fraud?" addressed some of these issues in an attempt to win over prospective customers and teach them best practices for using the site.[26]
Segal and Millership phased out the guarantee feature on July 5, 2016. It no longer appears on the company website, advertising, or promotion.[27]
Fake female bot accounts[edit]
According to Annalee Newitz, editor-in-chief of Gizmodo, who has analyzed the 2015 leaked data,[28] Ashley Madison had over 70,000 bots sending fake female messages to male users. She had previously released an analysis purporting to show that only a minuscule proportion (12,000 out of 5.5 million) of registered female accounts were used on a regular basis,[29][30][31] but she has subsequently disavowed this analysis, saying that from the data released there is no way of determining how many women actually used the service.[32] Newitz noted a clause in terms of service which states that "many profiles are for 'amusement only'".[31]
In 2012, a former employee claimed in a lawsuit that she was requested to create thousands of fake female accounts attractive to male customers, resulting in repetitive stress injury. The case was settled out of court.[31]
In July 2016, CEO Rob Segal and newly appointed President James Millership told Reuters that the company had phased out bots by late 2015. Segal shared an independent report by EY (Ernst & Young), which verified the phase-out..
Data breach[edit]
On July 15, 2015,[51] the site was hacked by a group known as The Impact Team. Claiming that its security had always been weak, the hackers claimed to have stolen personal information about the site's user base and threatened to release names, home addresses, search histories, and credit card numbers if the site was not immediately shut down. The demand was driven by the site's policy of not deleting users' personal information following their invoiced requests.[52]
The first release, validated by experts, occurred on August 18.[53] Another release was made on August 20, but a 13 GB file – which allegedly contained the emails of Avid Life Media CEO Noel Biderman – was corrupted.[54] This was corrected on August 21, when the Impact Team dumped Biderman's emails in a separate 19 GB file.[55]
Some users reported receiving extortion emails requesting 1.05 in bitcoin (approximately $225 at the time) to prevent the information from being shared with the user's significant other.[56][57] Clinical psychologists argued that dealing with an affair in a particularly public way increases the hurt for spouses and children.[58][59] On August 24, the Toronto Police Department spoke of "two unconfirmed reports of suicides" associated with the leak of customer profiles along with extortion attempts, offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the hackers.[60] At least one suicide previously linked to Ashley Madison has since been reported as being due to "stress entirely related to issues at work that had no connection to the data leak".[61]
CEO Rob Segal said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the company was making ongoing investments to enhance privacy and security safeguards, including a partnership with Deloitte's cyber security team. Segal also announced new discreet payment options, including Skrill, Neteller, and Paysafe card..
I have a lot more info. about what happened on Ashley Madison and the similarities to it when being a member of AFF.
I commented earlier about AFF being a sinking ship, and happy now I will never go down with it as my "Heart Will Go On"..
( Robin Hood, this is for you and others here, who are on AFF, and now on this site)
..
Sorry gang. I did not realize just how much info. there was here.
ReplyDeleteThere was also a serious hack into AFF, including personal and financial details of its members. I blogged about it and consequently got banned - my debut ban!
ReplyDeleteWow! I don't remember hearing about that and your ban when you posted it..Yikes. I have a feeling at some time there just may be a movie about it too..
DeleteAs I've been going through old posts, I found one where I advised people to find their own information about the "bata dreach" (as opposed to believing the site's PR about it) - so clearly I must have been aware that it was risky to talk about it haha!
DeleteSounds like you had a feeling you also would have been banned blogging about it..
DeleteI should have been more circumspect. Though at the time, I believed my blog post didn't breach the AFF's terms of use - a mistake I repeatedly more recently!
DeleteAFF was also involved in a murder trial when a man murdered a woman whom he had met on the site.
ReplyDeleteOMG! I had not heard about that one either..Jumping! I remember writing a post there once called Stranger Danger after seeing comments and posts about hooking up with someone they had never met, gotten to know first and just went straight to the hotel or their house. All in the name of getting laid without even thinking about the danger that may have awaited for them..Such a scary situation for one to put themselves in..
DeleteI think the man was British though the murder took place in America.
DeleteHow incredibly sad and so hope others use common sense as to just how dangerous it is when just casually hooking up with someone without knowing them at all first.
DeleteIt's always best to play safe when dating someone new. Always meet in a public place, and tell a friend where you're going and when you're due back.
DeleteIt's amazing how AFF survived this long despite all the drama going on on- and off-site.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised myself now as it has gone downhill so quickly in the last while..
DeleteI saw another documentary about the Ashley Madison scandal, it was either Max or Hulu. Not sure which. I'll probably watch this one too, I like to see how different filmmakers handle a subject.
ReplyDeleteAff was hit with a data breach about a year after Ashley Madison. It's when Anonymous was going after everyone.
Trying to remember "Anonymous" back in 2016. Something that online stalkers are famous for also. Sex, Lies and Scandals is the one coming out on Netflix this coming week. The Ashley Madison Affair is one ABC is showing this July. As for Hulu, I do not nor have heard of Hulu. It would be good to see all three takes from different producers and companies on how they interpret the subject..
Delete