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Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

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Re: Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

#2
In northern virginia, fairfaxunderground website, was nice enough to parse only information pertinent to this area. Now, everybody and their friends have searched through it looking for people they know. My wife actually found a good friend's dad listed twice...and he's still married. So, now all those facebook connection have this awkward knowledge and no one will tell the friend.

Re: Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

#3
The section about how confused the layperson is about technical details, e.g. what a database is and how the Internet generally works, makes me think that this data release is going to exacerbate paranoia about data and the Internet in general, rather than lead to a general awareness of better security precautions. I think as more fallout happens, there will be an increased sentiment in favor of such things as "right to be forgotten"...though perhaps that's not such a bad thing if it is in the context of requiring companies to wipe out old customer billing data upon request.

Re: Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

#4
Immediately, somebody should begin a study on the impact of this data leak. Millions of cheaters exposed? What will be the increase in counseling? Divorce rate? What percentage of folks will carry on like nothing has happened?

It's an incredible story. I'm not sure the English language has a word to describe this: watching millions of people go through marital pain all at the same time. It's not a train wreck -- you can watch that and see that there are real people suffering. This is all just some huge faceless mob.

I am reminded of Stalin's quote: when one man dies, it's a tragedy. When a million men die, it's a statistic.

(I absolutely do not approve of lying and cheating on spouses. I will not keep your secret for you. But I also do not approve on taking action that would result in folks I do not know getting exposed. Folks have a right to their own lives.)

Re: Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

#5
post #3

The section about how confused the layperson is about technical details, e.g. what a database is and how the Internet generally works, makes me think that this data release is going to exacerbate paranoia about data and the Internet in general, rather than lead to a general awareness of better security precautions. I think as more fallout happens, there will be an increased sentiment in favor of such things as "right…

> is going to exacerbate paranoia about data and the Internet in general

Which seems rather appropriate given the extremely sick facts delivered to us by Snowden on a silver plate and the absence of change of course of society.

Re: Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

#6
Reading this made me think about the hard problem of "removing" yourself from the internet. I don't think it is possible. But I do think there might be an opportunity for a service that creates so much conflicting and false information about a person that it is not possible to know the truth about them: false addresses, phone numbers, credit histories, you name it. Just a thought.

Re: Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

#8

In northern virginia, fairfaxunderground website, was nice enough to parse only information pertinent to this area. Now, everybody and their friends have searched through it looking for people they know. My wife actually found a good friend's dad listed twice...and he's still married. So, now all those facebook connection have this awkward knowledge and no one will tell the friend.

Is it "nice" to encourage violating other people's privacy?

Spouses are the real victims in these situations. Part of the pain of infidelity is the humiliation. Airing a whole community's dirty laundry just makes it worse for the victims.

Re: Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

#9
post #6

Reading this made me think about the hard problem of "removing" yourself from the internet. I don't think it is possible. But I do think there might be an opportunity for a service that creates so much conflicting and false information about a person that it is not possible to know the truth about them: false addresses, phone numbers, credit histories, you name it. Just a thought.

I've been thinking about this a lot. But the problem is that such a service would have to violate EULAs of many popular services like facebook and twitter.

Re: Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

#10

In northern virginia, fairfaxunderground website, was nice enough to parse only information pertinent to this area. Now, everybody and their friends have searched through it looking for people they know. My wife actually found a good friend's dad listed twice...and he's still married. So, now all those facebook connection have this awkward knowledge and no one will tell the friend.

Is it "nice" to encourage violating other people's privacy? Spouses are the real victims in these situations. Part of the pain of infidelity is the humiliation. Airing a whole community's dirty laundry just makes it worse for the victims.

I think (hope) that she was being sarcastic with use of the word "nice" in this context?
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