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THE OPERATORS OF the Ashley Madison affair-minded dating website has agreed to pay a $1.6 million (€1.5 million) penalty over a data breach exposing data from 36 million users, US officials announced.
Ashley Madison’s Canadian parent company Ruby agreed to the penalty to settle charges with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state regulators for failing to protect confidential user information.
The settlement comes after a hacker group last year released what was said to be personal data on millions of members of Ashley Madison, who were based in 46 countries. The fallout led to reports of blackmail and even suicides.
The financial penalty, split between the federal government and US states suing the company, would increase to $8.75 (€8.3) million to the FTC plus $8.75 (€8.3) million to states if Ashley Madison fails to abide by new information security practices and refrain from misleading consumers.
“This case represents one of the largest data breaches that the FTC has investigated to date, implicating 36 million individuals worldwide,” said FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez.
“The global settlement requires AshleyMadison.com to implement a range of more robust data security practices that will better protect its users’ personal information from criminal hackers going forward.”
No compensation
Ramirez said the penalty being paid is too small to allow for “redress” or compensation to affected consumers, noting that compensation is rarely obtained in data security cases.
“We want them (the company) to feel the pain, we don’t want them to profit from unlawful conduct,” Ramirez told reporters in a conference call.
But she added that “it would not serve the public interest to put them out of business”.
Earlier this year, the dating website – whose motto had been “life is short, have an affair” rebooted, calling itself an “open-minded dating” service.
The company said at the time it will no longer use female “bots” or automated programs that respond to members pretending to be women on the hunt for men.
According to the FTC complaint, until August 2014, operators of the site lured customers, including 19 million Americans, with fake profiles of women designed to convert them into paid members.
The company failed to adequately protect users’ personal information such as date of birth, relationship status and sexual preferences, according to the complaint.
The company confirmed the settlement, saying it would help it move past the hacking episode.
“Today is a pivotal day for our members and for Ashley Madison,” said a statement from Ruby chief executive Rob Segal.
Today’s settlement closes an important chapter on the company’s past and reinforces our commitment to operating with integrity and to building a new future for our members, our team and our company.
The settlement followed an investigation in cooperation with consumer protection authorities in Canada and Australia. Thirteen US states plus the federal District of Columbia joined the lawsuit.
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So they are protesting that a guy committed suicide after being caught illegally selling swordfish. Did I read the article correctly?
Just read the (far more professional) article in The Guardian. Seems the poor guy slipped as he was trying to retrieve his fish from the truck. Horrible way to go.
The last relatively stable country in North Africa… I smell another “Arab Spring” here…
@mac.kerel:
Yeah and wait for it…”and it was all instigated & orchestrated by the USA, the UK, the French and of course the USA’s Zionist allies the Israelies”! In fact they must have been one of them that threw him and his fish into the garbage truck in the first place!
It has got so bad now that they will soon be blaming one or all of the above for the 1st and 2nd World Wars and all things in between and before!!!
Hello Journal.ie
So the death of one guy in Morocco is a headline for Irish people? Nothing happening perhaps on the emerald isle? Without being disrespectful to this individual, surely there are thousand more injustices on a larger scale you COULD be reporting on? Some of them might even concern Ireland?
Think it’s to do with the implications of another potential Arab Spring movement
Believe it or not some people are interested in international news too
yes while your at it write strongly worded letters to rte and tv3 insisting they stop broadcasting world news during the news slots. if only we could turn off the Internet in Ireland too so none of us have to be poisoned with information from around the globe.
@deisecelt: You miss the point completely. You must have turned off from the outside world in order to be that obtuse.
@David O’Brien: The death of one man in bin lorry, is seldom regarded as INTERNATIONAL news. This is local Moroccan news. There are many things happening in the Arab world in the north African states that are international news. I am merely pointing out, the oddity of this single story being highlighted by the journal.ie. However we could always just read what is posted without ever asking questions. Perhaps that is preferable to you?
So we have idiots that think a nationwide protest in Morocco shouldn’t make the papers ?
@Bernard O’Brien: Well conclusions like yours make me give up in despair. Read what was written not what you want to see……..
@Colm Maguire: When you are in a hole it is considered a good idea to stop digging. One of the implications for Ireland and the rest of Europe is that if Morocco follows the rest of North Africa into anarchy it will mean more people in boats, lots more people in boats, trying to reach Europe and given that you can see Europe – Gibraltar and Spain – from the Moroccan coast what is already a flood has the potential to turn into a tsunami.
they love an old protest these arabs, a man gets killed in an accident and theres an investigation. happens here a lot on building sites, farms etc, we don’t see this. very aggressive. let the investigation do its job.
Not making a link to the tragic story above but if you are just looking for a good read, check out the Clintons dealings with Morocco – made my head spin… https://theintercept.com/2015/04/22/inside-morocco-clinton-influence-campaign/
have your say