Ashley Madison Gets Sued For $578 Million In A Class-Action Lawsuit
Ashley Madison is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The popular online website which promotes “life is short, have an affair” has millions of users from across the world who have signed up to have an indiscreet affair. The sign-up process required users to divulge confidential and personal information that the website promised to delete for a fee of $19.
A group of hackers who call themselves ‘The Impact Team’ had earlier threatened Avid Life Media Inc, a Toronto based company who owns the Ashley Madison website. The hackers stated that they had obtained personal and confidential information of around 30 million users and stated Ashley Madison was not honouring its promises of deleting personal information for the $19 fee. The Impact Team demanded for the website to be shutdown or the personal data of these 30 million users would be splashed all across the internet.
The Ashley Madison team did not give into the threat but instead decided to upgrade its online security platform in an effort to prevent any further hacking attempt. The Impact Team kept its threat and has published confidential data of Ashley Madison users all over the internet and has caused serious damages.
There are rumours that a number of Ashley Madison users are high profile individuals, celebrities and entrepreneurs who have a lot to lose. There are also rumours that a couple of Ashley Madison users have committed suicide as they were unable to face their families. This breach of data and trust by Ashley Madison has shaken up millions of users and two law firms in Canada have decided to file a class-action lawsuit against Ashley Madison. A lawsuit for $578 million was filed on behalf of all Canadians against the online website for a breach of trust and compromising the data of millions of individuals and putting them at risk.
Avid Life Media Inc has denied any wrongdoing and stated that the hackers had crossed the line by publishing confidential data that could affect millions of families. The company has issued a $500,000 reward for any information that would help track down ‘The Impact Team’ and lead to their arrest.
The releasing of confidential data on the internet has released a can of worms for millions of Ashley Madison users as many have reported receiving blackmail threats from unknown individuals.
