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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

#141
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one of the things I really like about Google, that they have a team that's explicitly working to make it easier to take your data out and move to a different service. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Data_Liberation_Front

.. and delete it from Google afterwards?

Not in a million years

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

#142
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're basically making the case that, if you have nothing to fear, you should have nothing to hide. But, replacing "fraudsters" with "terrorists" or "online weed dealers" in your comment states the law enforcement and intelligence community case against personal privacy pretty clearly. I think that, in practice, it's about whether or not social media sites and search engines should be forced to maintain a market on…

I see a difference between privacy (preventing information about you from getting out) and rewriting history after the fact. Historical data is a public good, it's much bigger than an individual and his affairs, whether legit or not.

>I see a difference between privacy (preventing information about you from getting out) and rewriting history after the fact.

I don't, in this case. Search engines and social media sites were never intended to serve as arbiters of historical truth. Is it really a good idea to suddenly pretend they are, and insist they act like it?

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

#143

One thing that struck me about this is that all the messages from people worried their data are from men. Troy even states that explicitly: "very close to 100% of the emails I got were about men having accounts on the site". Why is that? Is it because men are more likely to cheat, or because men are more likely to need the help of online services to do so? I suspect both are true, but can say with confidence that the…

Yes, technically men cheat a little more than women, according to studies that aren't done by dating companies.

But the 'why' is varied. It's illogical to say "they cheat because they are more likely to cheat". They cheat because of many factors, but according to surveys, they cheat more often out of a need for physical satisfaction, while women cheat more out of a need for emotional or intimate satisfaction.

As far as need for online services to help? That's completely dependent on the person, again. True, women get hit on more often & indiscriminately, so they'd have more choice. But they also can't necessarily get the emotional satisfaction they're looking for, so that narrows the field. Men just need to be attractive enough to get laid, which again definitely depends on the man.

--

As a side rant: Assuming sex and gender were considered about the same, gender inequality is a function of gender differences. In other words, it's not only inevitable, it's normal. Women request [and should get] special care for breastfeeding/pumping, maternity leave, they have higher incidences of breast and ovarian cancer, they naturally have less muscle and are shorter on average, etc etc. These aren't controversial statements, and yet, they show simple examples of how women are different, and in some cases should be treated different in order to provide care. How would one make these differences "equal" among the genders? (obviously sex isn't gender, but clearly there's more cis-women than trans-women)

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

#144

One thing that struck me about this is that all the messages from people worried their data are from men. Troy even states that explicitly: "very close to 100% of the emails I got were about men having accounts on the site". Why is that? Is it because men are more likely to cheat, or because men are more likely to need the help of online services to do so? I suspect both are true, but can say with confidence that the…

> Women don't need sites to help them cheat; all they have to do is go out and they will be hunted down. As a woman I find this a clear sign of the remaining, quite sinister, gender inequality.

Can you expand on what you mean by that? (Specifically by "hunted down" and how what you're talking about relates to inequality)

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

#145

One thing that struck me about this is that all the messages from people worried their data are from men. Troy even states that explicitly: "very close to 100% of the emails I got were about men having accounts on the site". Why is that? Is it because men are more likely to cheat, or because men are more likely to need the help of online services to do so? I suspect both are true, but can say with confidence that the…

> Women don't need sites to help them cheat; all they have to do is go out and they will be hunted down. As a woman I find this a clear sign of the remaining, quite sinister, gender inequality. Can you expand on what you mean by that? (Specifically by "hunted down" and how what you're talking about relates to inequality)

Have you ever been to a bar? A single woman will attract lots of male attention. A single man won't have a similar level of females flocking to him unless he's got movie star looks.

These are vast generalizations with plenty of exceptions, but surely you have noticed that in most cultures men tend to pursue women more actively than vice-versa?

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

#146
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say fair you shouldn't expect to have account removal on Steam because it's would be abused as hell: family conflicts, script kiddies, "friends" "jokes", etc.

We shouldn't expect the ability for Steam to honor a request to remove our accounts because that ability could be abused by family conflicts, friends and jokes?

Yes because it's nearly impossible to check if it's actually you request removal and not somebody else. Otherwise Steam would have to keep your account data on servers anyway so there is no point in removal procedure.

Considering Steam don't ask about any of your personal information (and you can pay using PayPal or even "offline" wallet codes) I would suspect that such feature will be used more for harm than good.

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

#147

One thing that struck me about this is that all the messages from people worried their data are from men. Troy even states that explicitly: "very close to 100% of the emails I got were about men having accounts on the site". Why is that? Is it because men are more likely to cheat, or because men are more likely to need the help of online services to do so? I suspect both are true, but can say with confidence that the…

You don't understand what it is like to be a man then. It has nothing to do with "inequality". When it comes to sex it is woman that hold most of the cards. For a man, unless they are handsome, wealthy and well endowed (i.e. perfect) then they are at the mercy of women. Which means they have two choices, they either "beg" for it or try to "take" it. Both come in a variety of subtle and overt forms. In either case it…

   For a man, unless they are handsome, wealthy and well
   endowed (i.e. perfect) then they are at the mercy of 
   women.
This isn't true at all. I know plenty of average guys with great relationships.

You're right about insecurity being a turnoff for most people, though.

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

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you that women (and men for that matter) find confidence attractive. You don't have to be in a relationship to be confident. I would be careful of conflating the two. From my experience, most women are not interested in holding sex as a trump card. Like you and I, they are simply looking for companionship - for someone they can count on for support and non-judgement during times of crisis, but who will a…

>It sounds like you're pretty bitter about something or other. What did they say that made them sound bitter? I often see this response for points similar to the one GP made, so I was wondering what about it makes one seem bitter?

    What did they say that made them sound bitter?
When they bemoaned the state of male/female relationships and claimed that females somehow dominate men who are anything less than "perfect." That sounded very bitter to me.

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

#149

One thing that struck me about this is that all the messages from people worried their data are from men. Troy even states that explicitly: "very close to 100% of the emails I got were about men having accounts on the site". Why is that? Is it because men are more likely to cheat, or because men are more likely to need the help of online services to do so? I suspect both are true, but can say with confidence that the…

The membership seems to have been a sausage-fest. Lots of men, lots of fake female profiles and lots of female sex workers, but very few legit female profiles.

So the worried responses would be from users, and the user base displays bias.

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

#150
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We shouldn't expect the ability for Steam to honor a request to remove our accounts because that ability could be abused by family conflicts, friends and jokes?

Yes because it's nearly impossible to check if it's actually you request removal and not somebody else. Otherwise Steam would have to keep your account data on servers anyway so there is no point in removal procedure. Considering Steam don't ask about any of your personal information (and you can pay using PayPal or even "offline" wallet codes) I would suspect that such feature will be used more for harm than good.

Wait, why do we need special requests for Steam account removal? I would login and delete my account (and as a result immediately logged out I suppose). Steam uses two factor authentication for login and unless someone has got hold of your Steam password and email password, you should be safe.
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