XPost: wi.general, alt.fashion, can.motss   
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   From: lololol@divorces.com   
      
   The anonymity of the early Internet is over   
      
   There are things we do online that we simply don’t do in public,   
   or in our “real lives.” We leave our credit card numbers at   
   various online shops for easier check-out—but would we ever do   
   such a thing in a real-world Wal-Mart or Bloomingdale’s? Comment   
   sections online, on even the most innocuous of topics, often   
   descend into anarchy as people say things to each other behind   
   the safety of their keyboards that they would never say in   
   person. Jimmy Kimmel has a recurring segment featuring   
   celebrities reading mean tweets about them—comments that they   
   would likely never hear in their day-to-day lives. People are   
   bolder on the Internet.   
      
   Ashley Madison, a website designed to provide an online venue   
   for those interested in cheating on their spouses, capitalizes   
   on this online boldness. Now, the very thing that makes Ashley   
   Madison so popular, its promise of online anonymity, could mark   
   its demise. Hackers are threatening to leak names, addresses,   
   photos, sexual fantasies, and other personal information of   
   Ashley Madison users unless the site closes down and goes dark   
   permanently.   
      
   Ashley Madison has always been very open about what it does.   
   Launched in 2001, the website’s tagline is “Life is short. Have   
   an affair,” and the front page of the site shows a beautiful   
   woman, wedding band visible, her finger to her lips. And it’s a   
   hit: The site has more than 30 million users around the world,   
   and its parent company—which also owns other sites including   
   Cougar Life, a site for older women seeking hook-ups with   
   younger men—made more than $100 million in 2014, up 45% from   
   2013. You might not hit on your co-worker when looking to cheat   
   because the risks are too high, but a website made for affair-   
   seekers seems like a safe proposition.   
      
   The problem, of course, is that our Internet lives have very   
   much become our “real lives.” Things you say online can, and do,   
   haunt your offline world. Last month, evidence of a hack at the   
   Office of Personnel Management in the highest echelon of our   
   government exposed the sensitive personal information of 18   
   million people. On a smaller scale, I once Googled a recommended   
   handyman and found he had made a string of vile comments on   
   YouTube videos. He could be the greatest handyman in the world,   
   but I certainly didn’t hire him. The book So You’ve Been   
   Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson collects examples of people who   
   were fired or had their public image destroyed because of things   
   they said online.   
      
   Hiding behind online profiles simply isn’t possible anymore. The   
   anonymity of the early Internet is over. And while it may be   
   possible that some Ashley Madison users just used the site to   
   chat online, it’s likely that the majority were looking to meet   
   people with whom to cheat offline, too.   
      
   Once the trust is broken with a personal site like Ashley   
   Madison, it’s much harder to get back than when, say, credit   
   card numbers are breached on Target.com or other shopping sites.   
   The future of Ashley Madison, whether it succumbs to the threat   
   or the likely harm caused to its business by just the idea of   
   exposure risk, remains to be seen. But its members will likely   
   never confuse the online space as a secure one again.   
      
   http://time.com/3964983/ashley-madison-users-the-internet-is-   
   real-life/   
      
         
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)