The Ashley Madison Leak Is Putting Lives At Risk

[Quixote1818]

He makes some really sobering points! I really hope no one dies or goes to jail over this.

[PSPS]

1. LOL. Right, any harm from my malfeasance is that fault of ... hackers! Yes! That's it!

The next thing you know, people will start blaming Snowden for the rogue actions of the NSA. Oh, wait...

[Quixote1818]

3. So you would be cool with gay men using the site in Saudi Arabia being killed?

We are talking about numerous countries where there are no human rights.

[Chakab]

5. There's a bit of a difference between illegal surveillance on a massive

scale and people using a website for no strings attached sex, no?

[Chakab]

13. I was so tired when I made this post last night/this morning that I forgot to comment on the irony

Last edited Sun Aug 23, 2015, 09:10 PM - Edit history (1)

(and stupidity) of somebody invoking Snowden in defense of the mass release of sensitive personal information of private citizens.

[jtuck004]

6. Don't disrespect hackers by lumping them with these criminals. They aren't the same.

The people who exposed these folks doing nothing illegal might as well have committed the murders this will cause themselves.

They have a lot of bloodthirsty cheerleaders, it looks like.

[Chakab]

12. The people who did this are hackers. Many hackers have truly noble intentions. However, many are

criminals and all around scumbags.

[jberryhill]

2. There are problems with not publishing it too

With only some people having the data, people can be extorted.

Figure, the data is really only available to people who are tech savvy, get the torrent, and know how to handle data.

The spouse of some guy at the CIA or wherever is unlikely to do that. So the efforts to take down the data have already resulted in blackmail and extortion schemes. And that can be for more than money.

[rusty quoin]

4. I have always been a big proponent of privacy.

I like an openness when it comes to government. I am completely against divulging personal information.

I was pissed in the eighties when it required your social security number to get a credit card. I was told in the military not to give it away except to federal agencies.

I was pissed in the nineties when you had to take a drug test to get work. Actually that started in the eighties.

I was pissed in the two thousands when you needed to divulge your credit report to get a job.

The information belongs to us not others.

[thebighobgoblin]

7. Lots of assumptions here

I think a lot of people are making some pretty dangerous assumptions here. Not every person who created a profile was out to have an affair, and even if they were in the beginning, perhaps they thought better of it and changed their minds - people do have the right to take back bad decisions. Sure, the majority of people who were active on the site were up to no good, and on some level, deserve what's coming to them. But the argument that they somehow deserve to be exposed or that they aren't really being victimized is some serious bullshit thinking.

I'm having a hard time reconciling how some people support Edward Snowden on the one hand for defending our privacy rights and then turn around and snicker at the people who just had their private lives exposed on Ashley Madison. We're a better society for having privacy, and we need to maintain our privacy vigilantly, regardless of how we feel about the people who created Ashley Madison profiles.

[Chasstev365]

8. Anyone who signed up at Ashley Madison

put themselves at risk of destroying their lives. I have no sympathy. If one is that unhappy in their marriage, have the guts and decency to your spouse to get out. Cowards are the ones who signed up.

[6chars]

9. interesting puritan streak

I wonder how people here would feel about someone publishing a list of people who have bought anything related to marijuana. Anyone who has had an abortion, or just used birth control pills. I guess it's only an invasion of privacy if it affects you.

[Chasstev365]

10. It's not a Puritan streak as much as

people taking responsibilities for their actions. If you can't take a marriage vow seriously, then don't get married. How understanding would you be if you found out YOUR spouse was on the list? Would you say, "Oh, I'm being a Puritan about this.'" " That's awful that some exposed your infidelity of me publicly." GIVE ME A BREAK!

[6chars]

11. Would you support mandatory reporting of infidelity?

And a permanent national cheater's list akin to a sex offender's list.

[Chakab]

14. Oh get off your high fucking horse. These people took vows to their partners, not you, me or anybody

else.

Infidelity is a private matter not something for public consumption. The fact that a person was looking for sex out of their marriage doesn't mean that they deserve to have their lives ruined.

[thebighobgoblin]

15. It's a puritan streak

How to handle infidelity is between the two people who comprise a couple. The rest of us can still be legitimately disturbed by the actions of cyber vigilantes who feel entitled to take matters into their own hands. I blame the Josh Duggars of the world for their infidelity, but playing cyber judge will have unintended consequences, and I blame the hackers for those consequences that end up hurting people who really weren't harming anyone else, regardless of how relatively small that number might be.