With the recent hack that released private details of its clients who are guaranteed confidentiality, is the online dating site Ashley Madison nothing more than an antisocial extramarital affair enabling site?
By: Ringo Bones
From The Simpsons and various late night show hosts /
comedians, Ashley Madison has become a punch-line of legalized extramarital
affair jokes for most of the 21st Century. And even though some site on the “dark web” are
providing more nefarious services like murder-for-hire or guaranteed online
sale and delivery to online customers of unlicensed modern assault rifles and hard
illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine, it seems that the social networking and
online dating website Ashley Madison has been dealt the short end of the “right-wing
conservative morality stick” when it comes to tearing the social fabric.
Unfortunately, a recent high-profile hacking attack had got the private details
of their clients divulged online and thus made Ashley Madison gain “unwanted”
popularity.
Ashley Madison is a Canada based online dating service and
online networking site whose services are aimed at people who are married or
who are in a committed relationship who wants to cheat and get away with it
from their current partner who they no longer love and yet don’t have the will
to break-up with. As typified by the service’s slogan: “Life is short, have an
affair”, Ashley Madison is often seen by the general public as nothing more
than an extramarital affair enabling website. Ashley Madison was launched back
in 2001 and the name of the site was derived from the two most popular female
names used on the North American continent – “Ashley” and “Madison” – as opposed
to the popular belief after “Dolley Madison” - former US President James
Madison’s wife with a penchant for having extramarital affairs.
Ashley Madison received its most recent significant “unwanted
public attention” back in July 15, 2015 after a high-profile online hacking
attack allowed “ethical hackers” to steal all of its private customer data –
including names, home addresses, credit card information and even including
their client’s “most private sexual fantasies” – and threatened to post all the
data online if Ashley Madison and fellow Avid Life Media site
EstablishedMen.com were not permanently closed.
At present, Ashley Madison is now facing a 576-million US
dollar class-action lawsuit from its “singed” clients. One of the high-profile
individuals who were affected by the hacking attack was American Traditional
marriage advocate and alleged child molester Josh Duggar who was recently outed
by the “ethical hackers” as one of Ashley Madison’s top clientele. Given the “amorality”
of Ashley Madison and the “ethical hackers” who outed their clients seeking to
get away with their secret trysts, I bet this story won’t be having a happy
ending.
