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Here’s what Ashley Madison members have told me

troyhunt.com

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

#11

Post by netcan »

What I'm curious about is future changes in user behavior in response to this kind of stuff. Private data, public data and the public-private grey areas like pseudonymous posts, access restricted (FB-like) profiles and such are getting leaked all the time.

Paranoia is definitely building. Awareness of how exposed people are is building. Yet, exposure is going up not down. People are posting more stuff online. I wonder if, for example, the cloud hack has impacted the trend of people taking nude picture at all? I suspect it hasn't. I suspect that none of these leaks will impact user behavior.

On one hand, a leak of an Ashley madison profile or salacious photos makes people aware that the danger exists. On the other, it confirms how widespread and normal it is to do these things.

Here's my (soft) prediction: Norms concerning fidelity and/or modesty will give before online behavior does. If the choice is stop sending nudie pictures or stop getting embarrassed when they leak, we'll go for the latter. For infidelity… maybe strict monogamy will soften as a norm.

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

#12

Post by DaFranker »

amelius wrote: post #9
jalanco wrote: 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.

EULAs are never legally binding, and especially not for someone who is 1) not currently a consenting user, and 2) invoking a right.

So in the EU, if current legislation projects bear fruit, a case could probably be made for implementing this under the protection of the right to be forgotten, and there would be very little those services could do to prevent it.

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

#14

Post by smoyer »

ryaniscool wrote: post #8
formichunter wrote: post #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.

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 also read that as sarcasm

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

#15

Post by jacquesm »

Think about how easy it would be to ruin someones reputation by signing them up for all kinds of shady services and then waiting for the (inevitable) breach.

Of course that possibility will not stop the witchhunt but I'm fairly sure that at least a small percentage of the people in that database have no idea they're even in it.

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

#16

Post by pavlov »

jacquesm wrote: post #15

Think about how easy it would be to ruin someones reputation by signing them up for all kinds of shady services and then waiting for the (inevitable) breach. Of course that possibility will not stop the witchhunt but I'm fairly sure that at least a small percentage of the people in that database have no idea they're even in it.

Yeah -- it's the digital equivalent of scribbling someone's phone number on the wall in a men's bathroom stall:

"For a good time call 555-755-4988, ask for Jane"

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

#18

Post by camillomiller »

jacquesm wrote: post #15

Think about how easy it would be to ruin someones reputation by signing them up for all kinds of shady services and then waiting for the (inevitable) breach. Of course that possibility will not stop the witchhunt but I'm fairly sure that at least a small percentage of the people in that database have no idea they're even in it.

Not really an issue. If that's your real email they're using, you still need to verify it (many services request that as a way to confirm the account creation). That Ashley Madison data is full of unconfirmed addresses. I think Troy Hunt's tool excludes them.

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

#19

Post by JupiterMoon »

netcan wrote: post #11

What I'm curious about is future changes in user behavior in response to this kind of stuff. Private data, public data and the public-private grey areas like pseudonymous posts, access restricted (FB-like) profiles and such are getting leaked all the time. Paranoia is definitely building. Awareness of how exposed people are is building. Yet, exposure is going up not down. People are posting more stuff online. I wonde…

> I wonder if, for example, the cloud hack has impacted the trend of people taking nude picture at all? I suspect it hasn't.

I've noticed recently that polaroid cameras are making a bit of a comeback. I wonder if this has any connection? (Not sure myself.)

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

#20

Post by simondelacourt »

everyone wrote: post #13

Anyone else think this is funny?

In this case; http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_i... you might call it funny. But I'd probably call it sad.

I don't think that exposing peoples private lives, even though they did something wrong, on this scale is remotely funny. I think it is quite sad. It does not only effect the members of the site, but also their families, the company they work at, etc.. This breach has so much collateral damage.

I can not really understand how it is funny.

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