Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked

krebsonsecurity.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 374 posts

Re: Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked

#31

Post by simplexion »

herbig wrote: post #20
simplexion wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it deserving of this? Genuinely interested.

I don't understand why you're genuinely interested. Whether You agree with the statement or not, you already know why it was made. "Genuinely interested" here is just bate for someone to "genuinely" argue with you and waste their time.

I am genuinely interested in their reasoning for it. I don't actually know why it was made. You are making assumptions. I was not and that is why I said that. I thought maybe they had poor business practices e.g. treated their employees bad.

The person below made a terrible comparison and that is why I responded like that.

Re: Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked

#32

Post by Gustomaximus »

barbs wrote: post #17

Where was the information published? Couldn't find it anywhere...

Haha, I'm going to be very tempted to cross reference the data to my personal contacts if this information goes public. It's probably better not to know as many friends you know the partner also and it could put yourself in an awkward position.

Re: Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked

#33

Post by Gustomaximus »

Does anyone know if it would it be illegal to look at and/or download this information once it is publicly available? I guess this would vary by country a bit. Would this count as 'possession of stolen goods' type thing? Seems likely, though catching people or having the will to is another thing.

Re: Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked

#34

Post by wisty »

Asbostos wrote: post #15
simplexion wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it deserving of this? Genuinely interested.

Cheating can cause a lot of emotional harm. Imagine a site for people to commit minor sexual assaults and publish the pictures of the victims. That would be easier to think of as deserving of being hacked though neither is causing tangible physical harm. The article also gives the reason that they apparently falsely sold customers a "delete your information" fee without actually deleting it. That kind of fraud can on…

Cheating can also end bad relationships. Which prevents emotional harm. I'm going to go out on a limb, and guess that a lot of the users are kind of ambivalent as to whether their current relationship is going to last.

Who else would use a site like that? People who are comfortable lying (e.g. "cheaters") probably just fake a profile on a regular site, and lie to their date as well.

Yes, maybe they should approach things differently ... but let's not pretend that everyone is perfect. If people didn't have flaws, I can think of dozens of industries that would vanish overnight.

Re: Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked

#35

Post by Asbostos »

cheald wrote: post #23
tenpoundhammer wrote: post #2

The possibilities are endless, I imagine someone will make this data easily searchable and journalists will be digging through to found anyone of notoriety that was dumb enough to sign up with their own names and credit cards etc. This hack could create a ton of news stories, including record divorce rates. I'm curious as to how the ashley madison admins are killing these links? DMCA takedowns? What's the mechanism f…

There's another case to be considered here, too - people who have used the site, got caught/came clean, did the work to fix it and have rescued their marriages (or were doing it with the blessing of their spouse), and now are at risk for their name being published for viewing by their coworkers, neighbors, members of their church, etc as a "cheater", "adulterer", etc, even after they've ostensibly paid their moral de…

If your friends or coworkers abuse you because of their beliefs, then they are the ones causing harm, not the person who informed them. You sound like you're not giving full blame to those abusers or at least accepting that their behavior is inevitable. If you're a member of a church which abuses adulterers, and you don't think adulterers should be abused, then you're as much to blame by supporting that stance with your membership.

Re: Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked

#37

Post by itistoday2 »

praptak wrote: post #21
beedogs wrote: post #9

It couldn't have happened to a more deserving site.

Illegal acts against people considered "deserving" is vigilantism, which is bad.

Vigilantism is by no means categorically "bad". Sometimes it is the correct, ethically responsible action, such as when an existing system is too corrupt and incapable of delivering justice.

Re: Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked

#38

Post by cheald »

Asbostos wrote: post #35
cheald wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's another case to be considered here, too - people who have used the site, got caught/came clean, did the work to fix it and have rescued their marriages (or were doing it with the blessing of their spouse), and now are at risk for their name being published for viewing by their coworkers, neighbors, members of their church, etc as a "cheater", "adulterer", etc, even after they've ostensibly paid their moral de…

If your friends or coworkers abuse you because of their beliefs, then they are the ones causing harm, not the person who informed them. You sound like you're not giving full blame to those abusers or at least accepting that their behavior is inevitable. If you're a member of a church which abuses adulterers, and you don't think adulterers should be abused, then you're as much to blame by supporting that stance with y…

I am ruminating on the harm to be had here, not the moral culpability for it; it's easy to not be sympathetic here because these are by design people who occupy the moral low ground, but I can think of a few cases off the top of my head where this could cause real unwarranted harm to peoples' lives.

Improperly applied, this could be as damaging as membership on the sex offenders' list for public urination. The fact that the people passing judgment are the ones imputing harm doesn't really change the fact that there are people whose lives will be damaged disproportionate to their crime, and I think that's extremely unfortunate.

Edit: I can't recommend it as a literary work, but the themes and lessons of Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" are directly and immediately relevant here.

Re: Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked

#39

Post by itistoday2 »

wisty wrote: post #34
Asbostos wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheating can cause a lot of emotional harm. Imagine a site for people to commit minor sexual assaults and publish the pictures of the victims. That would be easier to think of as deserving of being hacked though neither is causing tangible physical harm. The article also gives the reason that they apparently falsely sold customers a "delete your information" fee without actually deleting it. That kind of fraud can on…

Cheating can also end bad relationships. Which prevents emotional harm. I'm going to go out on a limb, and guess that a lot of the users are kind of ambivalent as to whether their current relationship is going to last. Who else would use a site like that? People who are comfortable lying (e.g. "cheaters") probably just fake a profile on a regular site, and lie to their date as well. Yes, maybe they should approach th…

> Cheating can also end bad relationships.

Um... cheating is by no means a requirement for ending a relationship. You can simply say, "This relationship is over."

Cheating is extremely harmful, and on top of that often unnecessary. Couples should discuss and explore open relationships, and if they are not open to that, end the relationship.

In virtually all cases, cheating is a totally unnecessary harm.

Post reply on HN