Ashley Madison

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Ashley Madison is an online portal founded by Darren Morgenstern in 2002 for contacting sexual partners for affairs . In 2007 the company was sold to Noel Biderman's Avid Life Media Group, who resigned due to the data protection affair in 2015. The online platform advertises with the slogan "Life is short. Have an affair." (Life is short. Have a love affair).

Members and gender distribution

The portal has been criticized from the start because money is earned with something, "breaks hearts, ruins marriages and destroys families". With 32 million registered users worldwide and an Alexa Rank of 1003 (as of May 7, 2015), Ashley Madison is the largest such Internet exchange . However, the number of active members is likely to be significantly lower. According to the operators, the ratio of male to female users is 70:30. In fact, a high number of female fake profiles must be assumed: For example, a former employee of the portal complained in 2013 that she had suffered joint damage by writing fake user accounts; the case was settled out of court. Former employee and consultant David Evans told the Washington Post , “Ashley Madison paid people to profile them. And they have allowed more and more fake profiles to appear on their site. ”However, this is quite common in the online dating industry.

Data protection affair 2015

Under the pseudonym The Impact Team , after an ultimatum to the operating company Avid Life Media (ALM) to close the portal, the data of 32 million users of the fling portal with names, sexual preferences, addresses, credit card numbers and the encrypted passwords were published in August 2015 . The company had been blackmailed beforehand by copying individual data records . The operating company said in a statement: “This is an illegal act against individual members of AshleyMadison.com and against any free-thinking person who chooses to do something completely legal.” The criminals had “declared themselves a moral judge and executioner and want to impose their personal morals on society as a whole. ”According to the hackers , 90% to 95% of users are male. The few female users are said to be mostly fake profiles, which would mean fraud .

According to the media, the operating company had known about security problems for years and had also hacked competitors. In addition, user accounts were not deleted as desired, despite the obligation to pay. The publication of user data harbors considerable dangers for identifiable users whose behavior is punishable in their countries. There have also been suicide cases that are linked to the hack.

As a result of the data affair, Biderman resigned on August 28th, Avid Life Media will initially be continued by the rest of the management, but the portal will remain online.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Patricia Pearson: The Two-Timers' Club . Toronto Life. January 2009. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  2. ↑ Meghan Daum: Ashley Madison's secret success . In: Los Angeles Times . January 10, 2001. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
  3. ↑ Jeremy Caplan: Cheating 2.0: New Mobile Apps Make Adultery Easier . In: Time Magazine , June 28, 2008. Retrieved January 6, 2010. 
  4. ^ Information portal about Ashley Madison
  5. ↑ ALEXA Site Information for ashleymadison.com
  6. ↑ The secret success of AshleyMadison.com: New cheating portal attracts sex adventurers ( Memento from November 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ The largest foreign-going portal starts in Germany welt.de.
  8. ↑ Ashley Madison Germany: Test and experience singleboersevergleich.com ( Memento from May 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Ashley Madison Life is Short. Treat yourself to an affair.
  10. ↑ Fake profiles at Ashley Madison: Deceived Fraudsters , Spiegel Online from August 27, 2015
  11. ↑ Ashley Madison: Published data from millions of users of the affair portal
  12. ↑ "Ashley Madison" hack - The data reveal everything , FAZ of August 26, 2015
  13. ↑ Simon Hurtz: An Ashley Madison user tells: "It was the biggest mistake of my life." , Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 25, 2015, p. 2
  14. ↑ Two people may have committed suicide after Ashley Madison hack: police , Reuters from August 24, 2015 (English)
  15. ↑ Data scandal at the affair portal: Ashley Madison's boss resigns , Spiegel Online from August 28, 2015