Running head: Ashley Madison: Privacy is not required?

Ashley Madison: Privacy is not required?

Joseph Chung

Ryerson University
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The privacy of online users and social media website, such as Ashley Madison created by

Avid Life Media, are symbiotic. Their website is designed for their users on having discrete

ways of providing extra-marital affairs. With promotions of anonymous and 100% discreet

(Lamont , 2016), users were guaranteed to the safety of their site. When the personal information

of their users was leaked by hacktivist group called the Impact Team, this event has caused an

outcome of resignations, divorces and suicides (Lamont , 2016) but is the hacking justifiable?

From a moral perspective, one can argue that personal information being leaked is warranted

because Avid Life Media are exploiting users that conduct infidelity should be vilified and

shamed. However, that claim could result to further damages and open up further repercussions,

questioning its true justifiability. Online personal information should not be leaked to the public

even if it is from a site that promotes infidelity. By praising the actions of hackers can promote a

dangerous proposition. Hackers that can obtain information by opening private data files and

revealing dirty secrets does sound romantic through a political lens such as WikiLeaks, but other

repercussions are not, such as the tearing of victim families when infidelity has been revealed.

Thus if Impact Team was labelled as an activist group, they are no different than vigilantes.

The act of revealing of personal information is horrible but can also be predictable in

todays online information world. The nature of social media is sharing. With that theme in

mind, can one individual truly expect to hide their identity at all, especially online? In the

article, Into the Electronic Millennium, Birkerts provides an explanation on the loss of the

private self. As more online users are sharing themselves, from personal images to social

connections their transparency of a life within a set of systems... becomes even more revealing,

what is left when everyone is consuming other peoples data online is truly no privacy. The loss

of online users is sharing personal facets of their lives to the online community in public, with
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different presumptions., or in the case of Ashley Madison, to find affairs that can fulfil their

sexual desires. But people are presuming their identities are safe because they can be lost in the

anonymity of the web, with just a quick creation of e-mails or changing their real names into

pseudo-names. There are many ways to hide your identity. But the folly of this anonymity is to

rely on anonymity alone. Especially since Avid Life Media promised in deleting their database

after signing up. This is evident by Impact Teams hack.

The official statement from Impact Team showcased signs of social justice for their

actions. Impact Team wanted to prove that the company, Avid Life Media, were bullshit and

has made millions of dollars from complete 100% fraud (Impact Team Manifesto, 2015). This

group of hackers are intently posting public information of Ashley Madisons users to showcase

that ALM as a business does not promise what they advertised, which is 100 percent identity

security and erasure of their users database when using their social media site to conduct in

extra-marital affairs. This official statement is a common trait among hackers. The ego of

Impact Team is evident and part of the many reasons why hackers even conduct their deviant

behaviours. By Turgeman-Goldschmidts article, Hackers Accounts, describes 11 categories that

are reasons on why hackers breach websites database and do their activities. One category,

Economic Accounts (Turgeman-Goldschmidt, 2008) is reflective on the case by Impact Team.

Turgeman-Goldschmidt highlights that not money is the reason behind their actions but the

opposition of bureaucracies and those who price-tag knowledge. (Turgeman-Goldschmidt,

2008) Simply put, Impact Team groups reveal on the corporation Avid Life Media as an evil

entity, that exploits and gain profits from their users is a form of vigilantism.

The waning of private self (Birkerts, 1991) is apparent by Impact teams actions. But

another form of privacy being unearthed can be the act of spying. This means unearthing
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information that is usually, closely guarded where the public cannot see. But Allens article on

spying describe a moral concerns that comes with such actions due to reliance on secrecy and,

perhaps, nefarious deception. (Allen, 2008) Allen states that three philosophical problems that

are interrelated on why even spying should be considered as a moral tool to be considered in

society: First, the act of spying is unethical. Secondly, spying on others can be ethically

permissiblein certain situations (Allen, 2008) Lastly, is the extent of the virtuous spy will

violate privacy and transparency normsbut he or she willcontinue to act with respect for the

moral autonomy and for the moral and legal interests of the investigative target. (Allen, 2008)

In the case of Impact Team, their official statements with the events of Ashley Madison reflects

this morale justification of spying (Allen, 2008) Therefore, is data of online users truly private

at all? No, it is not. There is a loss of private self (Birkerts, 1991) as users embrace technology

to connect with each other through infidelities.

Online love relationships are based on sharing which results to a loss of privacy. The

premise of lovers must know everything there is to know about one another (Gregg, 2013) as

stated by Gregg in her article on Spousebusting is alarming. The act of infidelity is a covert type

of operation. Thus, the invention of Ashley Madison as a safe haven for this activity is important

to stress on securing peoples information. Gregg points out different inventions that cater to

support covert communication, not just Ashley Madison, but other invention such as Tiger

Texts (Gregg, 2013) which is created to hide messages and delete them after they are sent,

which can be used for such purposes as cheating on your significant other. Social media can be

both a blessing and a curse. One online person can meet strangers and allow them to become

friends. This sharing of information is a type of benefit of our online age. Human beings are all
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being connected at an extraordinary rate than ever before. But the issue arises, are those

connections even a benefit to society or only the individual?

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Bibliography

Allen, A. L. (2008). The Virtuous Spy: Privacy as an Ethical Limit. The Monist, 3-22.

Birkerts, S. (1991, October). Into the Electronic Millennium. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from
boston review: http://new.bostonreview.net/archives/BR16.5/birkerts.html

Chohaney, M. L., & Panozzo, K. A. (2016). INFIDELITY AND THE INTERNET: THE
GEOGRAPHY OF ASHLEY MADISON USERSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES.
Geographical Review, 1-23.

Gregg, M. (2013). Spousebusting: Intimacy, Adultery, and surveillance technology. Surveillance

& Society, 301-310.

Impact Team Manifesto. (2015, July 27). Retrieved 3 28, 2017, from pastebin:
https://pastebin.com/3SepJr8Q

Lamont , T. (2016, 02 28). Life Affter the Ashley Madison Affair. Retrieved 3 30, 2017, from
theguardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/28/what-happened-after-
ashley-madison-was-hacked

Turgeman-Goldschmidt, O. (2008). Hackers' Accounts. Social Science Computer Review, pp. 8-

23.

Wysocki, K. D., & Childers, C. D. (2011). "Let My Fingers Do the Talking": Sexting and
Infedelity in Cyberspace. Sexuality and Culture, 218-239.
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