PRNEWSWIRE – Dec 8 – Despite its high-profile data breach, Ashley Madison app is bouncing back to pre-hack user numbers, according to the findings of the latest Android App Performance & Trends Report by AVG.
See full article at PRNewswire
Category: AshleyMadison
There Is A Hope For Ashley Madison
COMPUTERWEEKLY – Nov 26 – While 64% of online users would immediately stop using a site if it suffered a security attack or data breach, ~25% would continue using the site, according to a survey by NTT Com Security.
Sued Ashley Madison In Trouble If They Rely On Terms And Conditions
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:
- It's not our problem if your data gets hacked.
- We are not liable for damages, and you can’t sue us for more than $5K.
- You may be interacting with fembots.
- If you sue us, you must do it via arbitration and you may not do it as part of a class action lawsuit.
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
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After Ashley Madison Breach, Online Daters Check Credentials
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
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Dating Apps: Tech Doesn’t Matter, Says Sex Columnist
NYMAG – Oct 6 – Users choose dating apps the same way they choose bars – based on the people. The make-or-break factor in whether users stick around, is the crowd. With new apps getting launched every few months, the dating app people will like best is the one that happens to have a user base that fits the demographic of people they want.
Here's a breakdown of some of the dating apps Maureen O'Connor, a sex columnist, have experimented with:
- Tinder: Single people who hang out at bars.
- OKCupid: Single people who hang out at coffee shops.
- Match: Squares.
- JDate: Jewish squares.
- eHarmony: Christian squares.
- Ashley Madison: Horny married guys.
- Blendr: Horny single guys.
- Happn: People with nice jeans who live near your subway stop.
- Coffee Meets Bagel: Risk-averse nice guys.
- The League: Hedge funds and Hamptons.
Dating apps, like all social situations, are malleable. They're whatever people want them to be.
AshleyMadison.com Says Suits Filed Anonymously Are A No-Go
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
Millions Of Women Use Online Dating
QZ.COM – Sep 18 – In general, more men than women use online dating (13% men vs 9% women) in USA, according to 2013 Pew Research Centre study. Ashley Madison is an extreme example of this male-heavy ratio. Prior to the July hack, the site claimed that 30% of its clients were female. But only 15% of the 35M hacked records belonged to women, and it was found AM had created 70K female bots. Sites that promote casual hook-ups and extra-marital affairs are dominated by men but, when it comes to more serious, women are just as interested in online dating.
by Olivia Goldhill
See full article at QZ.com
Ashley Madison IPO “Plans” Could Be Just For PR
ANEWDOMAIN – Sep 14 – Avid has planned a $200M IPO on the London Stock Exchange, which the recent Ashley Madison hack supposedly waylaid. But leaked emails suggest that the so-called LSE float was a PR-generated story handed to BloombergUK. In an April 16 message to Jason DeZwirek, the firm's largest owner at 30%, Biderman allegedly noted that even some of his "sophisticated financial advisors believed it to be true."
by Gina Smith
See full article at ANewDomain
A Former Ashley Madison CTO Wants To Sue A Journalist Who Says He Hacked Nerve.com
BUSINESS INSIDER – Sep 10 – Raja Bhatia, former AM CTO, is threatening to sue tech blogger Brian Krebs who published a story titled "Leaked AshleyMadison Emails Suggest Execs Hacked Competitors." Bhatia, who left Avid Life Media in 2009, denies the claims. Krebs reported that in Nov 2012, Bhatia told Biderman that he had discovered a "huge security hole" in Nerve.com. He said that he had "access to all their user records including emails, encrypted password, if they purchased or not, who they talked to, what their search preferences are, last login, fraud risk profile, who they blocked or are blocked from, photo uploads, etc."
Avid Life Media Secretly Operated Escort Website
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