So...Ashley Madison data...

I had to go research the dark web, never heard of it. It sounds like a haven for criminals. Ick.

Me too.

Until this thread, I had never heard of the Dark Web.

If you have teens or early-20s kids, they can most likely tell you about the dark web. I certainly knew about it but not how to access it, as I have no need to.

I heard about it for the first time a few months ago when I saw a story about how terrorist organizations use it to deal in human trafficking to raise money for their terrorist activities. I was shocked.

I'm not so sure putting your email in there is anything but a spam scam.

I read an article that said that you could have used anyone's e-mail to sign up.  Someone created an account using Tony Blair's e-mail address.  This article was pointing out how completely innocent people could be damaged by this.  I can imagine, for example, a bunch of teenage boys creating an account for an unsuspecting teacher.

I wasn't trying to defend Josh Duggar! The article I read (I'm pretty sure it was in  Washington Post) just made the point that there could be some devastating consequences as a result of this hack and that some innocent people's e-mail might show up in the list of accounts.  I don't think the Josh Duggar story had even broken when I read the article.  

You could end up on a list if one of the dark web sites gets raided as begin a participant or recipient of whatever services were offered. You could end up on a list of people who illegally accessed confidential or higher information if that had been put on the dark web site. You could be easily flagged as a newb and then targeted for attack yourself. You could end up getting your system compromised and becoming a node on a bonnet used for various illegal activities and have the MIB knocking down your door.

It's just not a place for the casual observer.

While I think the premise behind Ashley Madison is gross, I don't like what happened AT ALL. Hacking and releasing private, personal information of innocent people is *never* right. And yes, these people are innocent. Infidelity is not a crime. Is it morally reprehensible? Absolutely. But there is no "greater good" being addressed here. There is absolutely no justifiable reason to do this. The hackers allege they did it because the site is basically a fraud. Well, releasing the users' info does NOTHING to solve that and it just injures people.

Like others, I am very bothered by the bigger picture here re: hacking and public dumps of private data. You might not be the victim this time, but you could be the next time. Don't be so gleeful about people "getting what they deserve" just because you don't fall in that group. Next time, you might.

I agree that in this instance people aren't focusing on the privacy breach and it will be different when a different organization is hacked.

If somebody's email had been signed up on AM as a joke, that person might have already known (they would've gotten email from the site - likely just deleted or put in the spam folder). It could create problems for somebody who is truly innocent and nobody would want to be caught up in that, but I also think somebody who is truly innocent won't have a hard time showing their partner that they are above board.

The privacy breach is one thing, and yes it can be scary. We've seen that with every other hack that has taken place. However, these people played with fire and got burned. There is no sympathy for that. These Ashley Madison users got what they deserved. Cheaters never prosper and this is how they learned that. If they didn't want to be linked with a cheater's website, then don't belong to a cheater's website. Easy as that. Just not for these cheating losers.

Wow!! Your DD's friend has no proof whatsoever that these lists are true. Seeing a link to a list of e mails addresses on the internet does NOT confirm the contents as facts. What she has done is so totally wrong IMO. It's a defamation of someone's character if she has no proof.

So the public in now the judge, juror and executioner for whatever they,the public, decide is immoral in someone's private life. Do they not have libel laws in the US. Your DD's friend needs to be very careful that she doesn't receive a letter from a lawyer pretty soon.

that was my thought as well.

Yes some have all the details and they are probably guilty of using the site  but certainly not all of them. I read somewhere yesterday that some names were attached to emails that are invalid.....like the dot wasn't  there in a particular [lace or the name didn't exist in the format of xyz @ abc. whatever. The problem is that people only see the names and have no idea if that is a legitimate e-mail address or not. Most of our work e mails are xyz(name) @ QQQ.co.uk  If someone added my name in the xyz it would be quite legitimate looking but I personally don't have that e-mail format in the same way as some others in the company do. There happens to be another bit after the QQQ for our dept but only our dept. No idea why but there is. So I could very well be listed on there if someone had made up these emails to " out" a celebrity or someone of high standing or to remain anonymous when joining the site in the same way. There was little if any validation of e-mail addresses by AM themselves so no one was checking if these invalid e-mails were bouncing back as undelivered.And not all of them have CC attached to them either.

To lump everyone that has a name on these lists as scumbags and they deserve it without proof is going too far IMO.