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

The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

krebsonsecurity.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 527 posts

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#181

Post by harryf »

dgfv1 wrote: post #133
harryf wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good thing you did it anonymously. We wouldn't want you to have to face any consequences for your actions. Let's hope you're not responsible for something like this http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/utah-dad-kills-fami...

I'm sorry what does that article have anything to do with anything. And if some wacko kills his family and himself how is that in any way my fault?

You took it upon yourself to interfere with other people's relationships and families. Whatever moral reasons you feel justify your anonymous intervention, when you start fucking with other people's relationships and families you have no idea of what's going to happen. A struggling young couple with a small child - the type of "hint" you provided might tip one or both parents over the edge... You have no idea.

In short; IMO dick move

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#182

Post by randac »

tedunangst wrote: post #6
dsacco wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great comment, Thomas. I had an argument with my girlfriend about this. No matter what reasoning I used, no matter what I said, she could not agree that it was wrong that Ashley Madison (A.M.) was hacked. Her position was that marital infidelity is such a pubishable offense that the participants on A.M. deserve to be publicly outed. In her view, it was not even up for debate. She felt so powerfully about in…

We are never the infidels. Only "they" can be infidels.

http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/we_and_they.ht...

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#183

Post by mtgx »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #162
mtgx wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Agree, though one could argue that what AM is doing is an explicit attempt to damage the basic building block of society, i.e. family Eh. So you think the people exposing husbands and wives cheating on each other are the ones breaking families, not the ones actually cheating? Don't shoot the messenger, comes to mind (okay, maybe imprison the messenger if he obtained the data in an illegal way, but I don't think he…

I'm not saying that people exposing cheating spouses are breaking families. I'm saying that AM was by explicitly encouraging that. It's not just a random dating website, it's the website targeting married people and running campaigns saying cheating is OK. I am definitely not arguing for shooting the messenger (I apologize if my comment was not clear enough about that) - what I want to say is that I may agree the bou…

Actually, it's my fault, I thought you were referring to the people who dumped the data.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#184

Post by gjm11 »

tremon wrote: post #159
geofft wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, I think discussions of ethics and morality in company purposes are (or at least, ought to be) very much on topic for the site as a whole. I just think that discussing the morality of this particular business on this particular comment thread is likely to risk being off-topic, because it's too easy to read it as "Yeah, but they deserved it," and maybe the company did but the story is primarily about the u…

"It is, IMO, clearly irresponsible and reprehensible to go around encouraging people to break their marriage vows and then not take world-class care of the database" It's reprehensible for any third party to go around encouraging people to break any sort of vows between any two people, and it's irresponsible for any online site with a large userbase to not take world-class care of their database. Why should the two p…

The two propositions should be connected because how bad it is when your name shows up in some hacked company's database depends on what the hacked company is, and being outed as someone who tried to have an extramarital affair is more damaging than being outed as someone who (say) bought some shoes.

(Some people will feel that this is balanced out by the fact that these are Bad People, who deserve to have their badness exposed. If so, failing to protect the database might have been less irresponsible and reprehensible in AM's case. But it would be quite a coincidence for these things to balance perfectly. One way or the other, the service you're providing to your customers makes some difference to just how awful it is when you fail to keep their data private.)

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#185

Post by mattzito »

varjag wrote: post #175
mattzito wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is by definition a private matter - we have no idea what the context behind these peoples actions are. They could have an agreement with their spouse to let them discreetly cheat. Cheating could be a part of their particular marital or relationship kinks. They could be in emotionally abusive relationships and looking for comfort. Or they could be cheaters who are lying to their SOs. Regardless, we the general publ…

Well that's the thing, the SOs now can find out. Yeah as a cheater one would get the uncomfortable feeling from everyone else possibly knowing that too, alas. Comes with the territory.

Or an SO who has an agreement with their spouse to let them quietly cheat has to now deal with strangers and friends alike "knowing" that the spouse sleeps around.

Or person A is in a sexless but loving marriage with person B. They have kids, and don't want to get divorced because they love each other, but person B is just done with sex. Is it worse for person A to cheat on person B than it is for the two to get divorced, upending the family structure and ruining them financially?

We could debate that endlessly, but the fact remains is its none of our business what's going on with the Ashley Madison people, nor is it our place to decide what's best for the partners of Ashley Madison customers.

Would you say it "comes with the territory" when someone's drug habit is leaked on the Internet? Or their private emails?

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#186

Post by nota_bene »

Snowden has risked his life and will be forced to remain paranoid for the entire rest of his life. His cause is noble and 100% justified. He did it for society, for us. What did we do to thank him? We labelled him a traitor and showed no support. And most of all: Almost nobody listened, almost nobody changed habits accordingly. So what does it take to make people listen and understand that our privacy is about to be completely abolished by technology?

It takes exactly leaks like this one. Brutal, emotional, visible and highly controversial events.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#187

Post by pmelendez »

zamalek wrote: post #123
camillomiller wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The elevation of monogamy and closed relationships as the God-given natural status of a couple is the source of too many problems. Same for not living our own sexuality in the open. By acting like this (that is: like you are supposed to) you are constantly prone to blackmail. If you happen to have a wife that is entitled in her social-induced belief that even thinking about other women is good ground for the terminat…

> God-given natural status The "God reasoning" isn't the only reasoning. Just like polygamy is a choice, so is monogamy. It's a sexual choice. What is wrong is that people can't be open about that choice. People should be able to be open and honest about being polygamous or monogamous with their partner - yes, that might sometimes result in the relationship ending; but there's a good chance where there is a disagreem…

> Just like polygamy is a choice

That's not much of a choice though. In several places you can go to jail for it. Or it is choice in the same way that being a criminal is a choice.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#188

Post by DanBC »

lentil_soup wrote: post #151
TeMPOraL wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree, though one could argue that what AM is doing is an explicit attempt to damage the basic building block of society, i.e. family. So this becomes somewhat a matter of public interest then.

Haha, well that's stretching the argument a bit, but for the sake of conversation I would then ask for proof that family is indeed the "basic building block of society" and that what MA is doing is actually damaging it to an extent that it can be considered a public safety issue.

Not proof, but "the family" is recognised as really important in international law.

They don't define a family as one male adult, one female adult, and some children by birth. So, personally, I use a broad definition of family that includes homosexuals and fostering and polyamory, while rejecting stuff like forced marriage or child marriage.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#189

Post by randac »

yummybear wrote: post #120
tptacek wrote: post #2

The response to this this on Twitter would be beyond fucked- up if it weren't so completely predictable. People are posting direct links to the dump, screenshots of lists of emails, and statistics for classes of domains. The general reaction to the availability of the dump is reasonably characterized as "glee". But no matter what you think about Ashley Madison --- and I think A.M. is so comically scummy that I had tr…

Most people in here (I assume) think Snowden's leaks were ethic, though illegal. The reaction to The Fappening was likewise equal parts glee and disgust. Almost nobody would blink an eye at revealing a doxxing dump from a terrorist sympathizer or CP forum. Ethics are a subjective thing, and lines are hard to place.

I'd be interested to know how people feel here regarding the messy Gawker/Hulk Hogan situation also.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#190

Post by marchdown »

yummybear wrote: post #120
tptacek wrote: post #2

The response to this this on Twitter would be beyond fucked- up if it weren't so completely predictable. People are posting direct links to the dump, screenshots of lists of emails, and statistics for classes of domains. The general reaction to the availability of the dump is reasonably characterized as "glee". But no matter what you think about Ashley Madison --- and I think A.M. is so comically scummy that I had tr…

Most people in here (I assume) think Snowden's leaks were ethic, though illegal. The reaction to The Fappening was likewise equal parts glee and disgust. Almost nobody would blink an eye at revealing a doxxing dump from a terrorist sympathizer or CP forum. Ethics are a subjective thing, and lines are hard to place.

Consistency is shooting yourself in an even number of feet. How is it ethical to dox people that are being made into villains?
Post reply on HN