Summary: Several lawsuits have now been filed in the United States in the wake of the Ashley Madison hacking.
Following Canada’s recent lawsuits against Ashley Madison, a dating website that proudly encourages married individuals to “have an affair,” eight people in the United States who once registered to use the site have also sued, according to the Daily Report.
Hackers recently revealed the personal information of millions of users who obviously would have preferred the information remain confidential. Financial data and sexual preferences of users were detailed in the leaked information.
Read about the Canadian lawsuit here.
The suits were filed last month and on Monday by users in California, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. Each seeks certification as a class action to represent the 37 million users of the site.
The lawsuits seek unspecified damages. They also allege negligence, privacy violations, and breach of contract. They argue that Ashley Madison failed to take reasonable precautions to protect users’ private information, including those who paid to actually have their personal information wiped from the website. According to CNN Money, documents were included in the complaint that showed employees warning the company about how vulnerable the system was.
In July, hackers breached Ashley Madison servers and downloaded private user information. Details included names, emails, addresses, financial information, and message history. Last week, the information was posted on the Internet.
The lawsuit reads, “Needless to say, this dumping of sensitive personal and financial information is bound to have catastrophic effects on the lives of the website’s users…As a result of (Ashley Madison’s) unfair, unreasonable and inadequate data security, its users’ extremely personal and embarrassing information is now accessible to the public,” according to the lawsuit, filed by the Baltimore-based firm of Hammond Law.
Many users have desperately tried to explain why they were linked to the site.
Attorney Julian Hammond, who has experience in class action lawsuits, said the breach is exceptional. Users are clearly concerned about destroying their marriages, in addition to identity theft issues. “I haven’t seen anything like it,” Hammond said. Bloomberg adds that proving damages will also be difficult in the case.
Avid Life Media, the Canadian company that owns Ashley Madison, said that the hack was malicious and an “act of criminality.” On Monday, it began offering a $500,000 Canadian (US $378,000) reward for information that led to arrest of the hackers. In a statement, the company said, “We will not sit idly by and allow these thieves to force their personal ideology on citizens around the world.”
The hackers said they attacked Ashley Madison after the site collected $19 from users to erase their data, but failed to do so.
The site previously enjoyed a boom in business after adultery was legalized in South Korea.
On Monday, Canadian law enforcement said the hack triggered extortion crimes. Additionally, two individuals reportedly killed themselves after the information was released.
The credit card information of many U.S. government employees was also revealed in the breach. Many work in the White House, the Justice Department, and Congress. Hundreds of emails are related to federal, provincial, and municipal employees throughout Canada as well.
Source: The Daily Report
Photo credit: Huffington Post