You just ruined the morning of several GFY readers... ;)

On a more serious note, I know people who have found dates through sites like alt.com, POF, and AshleyMadison. Those same people tried those sites because eharmony and okcupid had failed them. I also know gay sites like adam4adam are wildly successful at generating real dates with 'local hotties' if you are interested in finding a man. So, I'd agree some of the claims made are overstated, but I wouldn't say these sites are all completely ineffective. I'd also suggest their inability to protect user data is a different (and bigger problem) than the fact that many seem to overstate their success rate for new users.

I never said they were ineffective. I'm sure they are quite effective, but the fallout here won't make them more so. The advertising material and site tours will have to illustrate how the user can trust them with their personal info.

Why would AM have stored credit card numbers? Absolutely no reason to do so.

And ^^ the only site maybe gets hookups is adamforadam because it is gay men. Finding a gay man willing to meet is like finding a cheeseburger at mcds.

I agree gay adult dating is more likely to yield results, but isn't it also more likely to service clients who are particularly concerned about the possibility of data insecurity? Meaning, isn't some married dad on the down low now much less likely to enter their info on a gay dating site because of the AM breach news than a straight single guy looking to get laid with no worry whether somebody finds out he has a dating profile on a hookup site?

to answer your question, seems more like an ill-advised PR move than anything else.

I thought there was some serious legal ramifications for issuing DMCA notices that are not valid?

I'd expect they would argue this is proprietary data and they'd lose, but I doubt they would get slapped for doing it. Would love to hear from one of the attorneys on GFY in that regard...

Haha! Now that was a good one. :D

One of the questionable things about this is if AM has a copyright filed with the US copyright office for the database. Curioser and curioser....

If a giant as Ashley Madison isn't safe ... what's left for the little guys??

Sure was :thumbsup

STFU , Fitty Times :Graucho

The data release could have severe consequences for U.S. service members if found to be real. Several tech websites reported that more than 15,000 email addresses were government and military ones.

Adultery, under certain criteria including the misuse of government time and resources, is a crime in the U.S. armed forces and can lead to dishonorable discharge or imprisonment.

I'd be very surprised to see the government get involved in that way because it makes the military look bad, and verifying the accounts or when they were used etc would seem to be something outside their normal posture. However, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it were used to smear a high ranking individual, politician or anyone else with a meaningful degree of popularity or rank.

With regards to how this is possibly effecting surfer behavior this week during the mainstream media blitz....

We run sites and services in a lot of different adult sectors, so did a little math this morning and came up with the following:

1) Dating: We have run a "kinky dating" free site (kinkculture.com) for many years and the number of new signups per day is traditionally consistent. But, this week, new signups in the US are down by 30%, Canada dropped like a lead baloon, and a pretty steady flow of people deleting their accounts. Will be interested to see if things go back to normal after the media frenzy has died down. It's a totally free site (ad supported) that collects very little data beyond creating a nickname, adding their email address for match alerts, and then a lot of "what's your kink" info, so I'm guessing that a lot of folks are being gun shy at the moment.

2) Search: We also run a privacy-oriented adult search engine - boodigo.com - that does not mine or store any user data and provides users with an anonymous and encrypted search experience (and is heavily promoted this way in mainstream marketing). Boodigo also has very steady as a rock traffic, but within the first day of the AM data release news, traffic in the US and Canada went up by over 20%. I'm not sure if this is just some fluke, but suspect the AM news has some people now being more mindful in revealing that they are searching for "hardcore midget fartporn" lol

3) Paysites: No significant variation in traffic or conversions, although I a seeing a marked increase in privacy and TOS page views across the board for all of our paysites.

Time will of course tell what effects, big or small, this has on the overall adult industry, but I suspect the sector that is going to need some vigorous tap dancing will be dating.

That may well be one of the biggest lessons webmasters here can take away from this. But this has been a common thread among adult webmasters for as long as I can remember... cheapest host, cheapest registrar, cheapest writer, cheapest designer. I'd wager there are threads in the "looking to hire" section right now asking for cheap_____. I from day one looked at those who were successful online and went with their choices for the services I needed, and never once considered going cheap. And it payed off. Wheras going cheap can often come back to haunt you.

It's too bad that many won't learn from the Trashley Madison example at all.

One of the main points of concern there is the use of government emails for personal use to cruise and join sites like AM when they should be serving the people, and it's very likely going to bite a lot of elected officials in the ass.

Great post Colin :thumbsup

Best post so far in this discussion! Thanks Colin.

Would love to hear some numbers, even vague ones, from others to see if similar shifts are happening across many sites and networks right now.... Anyone else willing to share?

No credit card data was leaked, the database only has partial numbers.

Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 78187090
Filing Date November 20, 2002

You cannot Trademark a database but its contents are your legal property. Database contents are not published (usually in their entirety anyway) so copyright IDK -- it seems a reach ... but it could be ...

Sounds like messy legal biz.....

It was only transaction IDs thank god

Ah ok thanks for this. I heard CC info was released a la the Home Depot and Target situations.

Just wanted to also acknowledge your great post earlier. Thanks for digging into the numbers! While I don't have anywhere near the traffic you guys have your post (and this thread) did inspire me to look into my paysite numbers this week.

Sales are actually up a bit (odd being mid-August) while rebills seem steady. But when I checked traffic stats (popular pages) TOS and Privacy pages did indeed see a significant spike (35%).

I will keep an eye on the numbers as we move into the back-to-school and post-Labor Day season.

Unfortunately the media hype isn't likely to end anytime soon.

1. The hackers are dragging this out by releasing the data in dribs and drabs.
2. More customer names that are recognizable to the public are certain to emerge.
3. Sadly, at least a few of the thousands outed will quite possibly resort to suicide.

And the media will jump on any and all of this like flies on shit.

So It's fair to say that site owners should take a look at their Privacy and TOS pages to update them and it may even make sense to put a bold statement in about easy removal of data, free deletion of accounts etc on any kind of dating site offers.

As a shameless plug, it has also resulted in an uptick of people checking the validity of websitesecure.org trust seals (9% last I checked) on my own site, and I expect it has improved the value of the services we provide to sites that are certified.

The hackers are Russians. :2 cents:

Is that based on information or pure speculation?

>Does the release of the information affect your business?

Yes, I had customers asked to close the accounts: "My info had been hacked/compromised [no one specified Ashley Madison, but, you guess the timing...], please close my account. I am also canceling my credit card and getting a new one. I will then create a new account".

>Do you see any business opportunities as a result of the dump?

Nothing legal I can see...

>Will it be good or bad for the industry overall?

Bad. Since, I can't see a single reason why is good.

>Anything else you think is worth mentioning?

About the credit cards, the hackers said that they got that info not in Ashley Madison servers, but by logging in with user/password to the billers accounts (like, entering Epoch or CCbill), this is probably where the incomplete (partially masked) number would come from.

Except no more customers... even if they got savings, financially the company should be wiped out and possibly owners end in debt:

Ashley Madison Faces $578 Million Class-Action Lawsuit
http://www.inc.com/associated-press/...n-lawsuit.html

NO problem to find legal substance on damages... there's already extortion emails "pay with bitcon or we tell your wife" mails:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/08/...madison-users/

Some data: 28 million men versus 5 million women. just 14 percent of users on the site appeared to be women, "But ... repeatedly claimed Ashley Madison’s users were half men and half women in its key demographic":

Ashley Madison Hack Exposes (Wait for It) a Lousy Business | WIRED

But... " A former employee filed a lawsuit against the company claiming damages for wrist injuries caused while creating “1,000 fake female” profiles for the site’s launch in Brazil. ", so what's the real womens number?

I think the most stuff to come it will be christian, conservative activists, politicians names coming out. Here another christian evangelist:

Viral Christian Pregnancy YouTuber Sam Rader Had a Paid Ashley Madison Account

Would be nice to have someone from Ashley Madison post here. Some info on what they're are doing would be great. At least be somewhat accountable.

They give no updates in 5 days:

https://twitter.com/ashleymadison

They are now being sued for many millions of dollars via class action lawsuits and potentially face action from government agencies as well. I'd be shocked if they choose to make any statement at all until this gets resolved.

Yep. In light of all of the legal things popping up, they are well-advised to stay very quiet at this point with any sort of public statement that can and will be held against them in a court of law.

What a fucking mess.

Seeing AFF Canadian sign-ups taking the biggest hit. Numbers usually stay pretty consistent (based on over 15 years of heavy promotion). US numbers down but not as significantly as Canada. UK not affected at all at this point.
Still too early to be able to say that A M is the only reason for current drops.

Indeed. I do suspect that it being the final weeks of August comes into play here as well with so many folks taking summer vacations. Surprised your UK numbers are holding up as that and the rest EU countries pretty much take the month of August off and go to Spain where there is no internet! lol

Just a quick note of a real word impact:

A married couple I'm close friends with happens to be in a open relationship. However they don't tell their families about their love life. They both had accounts on Ashley Madison and used the site to meet other likeminded swingers.

Yesterday, the husband was contacted by an extended family member, who was very upset and wanted to let him know that his wife was using AM to cheat on him because he found her email address in the data dump. Now, my friend had to explain to him that they have an open relationship and will end up letting the rest of his family know that he and his wife like to swap with other couples so that they don't think his wife is cheating on him.

The whole thing is making a big mess out of people's live in all kinds of ways.

Oh that so sucks....

Educated speculation :2 cents:

Hollywood actor, NFL star and a top politician are among celebrities 'frantically calling up expensive damage limitation experts over the Ashley Madison hack'

Hollywood actor, NFL star and politician 'among celebrities on Ashley Madison' | Daily Mail Online

Forgiving wifes:



A suicide:
City Employee With Email Address Linked To Ashley Madison Committed Suicide | Blogs | San Antonio Current

Porn addiction admitted? :)

After the suicide news, some dark humor:

‘All Canadians’ Hit Ashley Madison With $578 Million Suit

No commentary other than this is getting very messy ...