It’s been a little over a week since massive amounts of data from the popular cheating website, Ashley Madison, were published online. Impact Team, the group behind the breach, released everything from email and home addresses of Ashley Madison’s users to their credit card and bank account information. Not surprisingly, the consequences were brutal. Although public reaction has been a mix of jokes about happy divorce attorneys and betrayal-karma for users, the hack’s effects will likely spread far beyond the site, to affect anonymity and online security throughout the Internet.
Many are likely reacting to the Ashley Madison hack with humor and righteous glee because they see this data dump as something that will only affect “bad people,” but this sentiment is fundamentally misplaced. Just as the “I’ve got nothing to hide” critique of government surveillance misses the point that many others have legitimate things to keep secret, laughing at the Ashley Madison hack ignores the fact that there are many online services that require privacy, and this breach threatens their use.
Consider the huge range of websites that offer community forums and live chats for dealing with issues such as substance addiction, suicide prevention, mistreatment of LGBT youth, domestic abuse, and sexual assault. Individuals will often turn to these anonymous online services because these topics carry social stigma or the potential for discrimination if revealed. By outing millions of Ashley Madison users, hackers have shown that online safe havens for anonymous activities may not be safe at all. In the process they may chill use of services that provide an important support system to those in need. Full story...
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Many are likely reacting to the Ashley Madison hack with humor and righteous glee because they see this data dump as something that will only affect “bad people,” but this sentiment is fundamentally misplaced. Just as the “I’ve got nothing to hide” critique of government surveillance misses the point that many others have legitimate things to keep secret, laughing at the Ashley Madison hack ignores the fact that there are many online services that require privacy, and this breach threatens their use.
Consider the huge range of websites that offer community forums and live chats for dealing with issues such as substance addiction, suicide prevention, mistreatment of LGBT youth, domestic abuse, and sexual assault. Individuals will often turn to these anonymous online services because these topics carry social stigma or the potential for discrimination if revealed. By outing millions of Ashley Madison users, hackers have shown that online safe havens for anonymous activities may not be safe at all. In the process they may chill use of services that provide an important support system to those in need. Full story...
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- A modest proposal to end dating anarchy and regulate the dating market...
- Singapore bans adultery website Ashley Madison...
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