THE GLOBE AND MAIL – Dec 16 – The data breach that aired the personal dealings and financial information of Ashley Madison clients has yet to spur concrete changes in security. Months later, public interest in the hack has faded – and so has the incentive for companies to beef up their security. Avid Life Media will likely bounce back.
by Paola Loriggio
The full article was originally published at Globe and Mail, but is no longer available.
BBC.COM – Dec 15 – Blackmailers are reportedly sending letters to Ashley Madison users, threatening to reveal their membership to friends and family unless they pay money. Security expert Graham Cluley advised anyone receiving such a letter to "ignore it" and share the letter with the authorities.
REALBUSINESS.CO.UK – Oct 22 – 3nder, a threesome app, has just raised 500K from two tech angel investors. The app is for singles and people in open relationships. The app is close to reaching 1M downloads.
by Zen Terrelonge
The full article was originally published at RealBusiness.co.uk, but is no longer available.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Summarized by
FORBES – Oct 23 – Ashley Madison is being sued in Canada, the US, and likely in other countries. These class-action lawsuits, seeking ~$500M in damages, will take years. A majority of the focus will be on the "Terms and Conditions" and “Privacy Policy". Recently, a federal judge in California granted Lyft’s motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed against it by its drivers. The reason? A provision in Lyft’s Terms of Service waives class actions and forced arbitration. Ashley Madison, however, might not be as lucky: some self-imposed update procedures are likely to get those Terms and Conditions completely thrown out. Ashley Madison's Terms and Conditions are intended to protect Ashley Madison. In summary they state:
Ashley Madison gives itself the right to update its Terms and Conditions at anytime, and expects users to check for updates. This won't work in California. Safeway was just ordered to pay out $31M in a class action lawsuit, due in a part to never having provided conspicuous notice of changes to its own online Terms and Conditions.
by Brian Powers
See full article at Forbes
See all posts on AshleyMadison
Summarized by
NYTIMES – Oct 15 – In August, traffic on Spokeo, an online verification service, more than doubled. Others are using private investigators and matchmakers to do the vetting for them. Selective Search, an executive matchmaking firm based in Chicago, also reported a bump in calls after the Ashley Madison hack. And Tawkify received more inquiries from people wanting to meet someone who has been properly vetted, said E. Jean Carroll, a co-founder of the matchmaking service.
by Abby Ellin
See full article at NYTimes
See all posts on AshleyMadison
See all posts on Selective Search
See all posts on Tawkify
NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL – Sep 21 – So far, 11 lawsuits have been filed against Avid Life Media, which operates AshleyMadison.com, most of them class actions accusing the company of negligence in allowing its customers’ personal info, like credit card numbers, to be hacked. Avid filed a motion to combine all the lawsuits in the Eastern District of Missouri. Their planned defense includes challenging the anonymity of the cases as procedurally improper under federal rules. Plaintiffs in some of the cases said they filed anonymously to protect their privacy. But anonymity could be an issue, said Gary Mason, a lawyer who filed one case against Ashley Madison. "It's going to be hard to prosecute a case on behalf of the class, a representative lawsuit, with someone who's not willing to step forward and publicly disclose who they are," he said.
by Amanda Bronstad
See full article at The National Law Journal
IBTIMES.CO.UK – Sep 4 – Avid Life Media, the parent parent company of cheating website Ashley Madison, secretly operated an online escort service, recently leaked documents reveal. The company was allegedly actively recruiting escorts for a separate "dating" website that was aimed at "sugar daddies". According to the leaked documents, ALM intended to use the escort site to funnel traffic to Ashley Madison and its other websites.
by Nicole RojasSee full article at IBTimes.co.uk
TECH CRUNCH – Aug 31 – That’s hard to believe, given that the leaked emails also revealed the company paid people to create fake profiles. In addition, Avid Life Media states that Ashley Madison's user base is growing, following the hack. Hundreds of thousands of new users signed up in the past week, including 87K women, the company says.
by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch
GIZMODO – Aug 27 – According to Ashley Madison's internal emails, the company was actively paying people to create fake profiles. The company even had a shorthand for these fake profiles—"angels." On June 27, 2013, in an email thread with the subject line "how angels are made," Noel Biderman scolded some of his employees for failing to create a decent automated process for making angels. Is it possible that Biderman built a site hoping to attract women, but failed miserably, then tried to hide that fact by creating all those fake profiles? All the ads are aimed at men and it is not that easy to create an account on Ashley Madison if you're a woman.
by Annalee Newitz
See full article at Gizmondo
FINANCIAL POST – Aug 28 – In April, Ashley Madison's head of international relations Christoph Kraemer estimated the company's value at $1B, pegging the ratio of men to women in the 30-45 age range at ~50-50. But a data analysis by the Gawker affiliate Gizmodo revealed there were only 5.5M female profiles and only ~12K of them displayed evidence of being connected to actual women who used the site. 10K accounts were registered to ashleymadison.com email addresses, while ~81K appear to have been created on an Ashley Madison computer, based on their IP addresses. If those allegations are true that's likely the last nail in the coffin for the site, said dating company consultant Mark Brooks. "I think people would have forgiven (the security breach). I think they would have gotten over that, as long as they put safeguards in place so it doesn’t happen again," Brooks said. "This, they don't move on from. This means this brand is not trustworthy. That’s a big deal."
by Claire Brownell
See full article at Financial Post
Mark Brooks: Alexa tells us that the female population is greatly under-represented and their confidence on this stat is 'high.'
