Ashley Madison was an online dating site with the tagline, “Life is short. Have an affair.” In 2015, a group of hackers known as “The Impact Team,” infiltrated the site and released data from between 32-37 million users. The group posted a manifesto(https://medium.com/@dannymack/the-impact-team-manifesto-to-ashleymadison-com-5d4e7225b787) detailing why they posted the content online. They called features like “full delete,” where users could pay Ashley Madison $19 to “remove all traces” of their site usage, a lie, and accused the company of fraud. This is especially important given the nature of the “service” Ashley Madison sold, but also because the company’s CEO had gone on record many times(https://splinternews.com/7-times-ashley-madisons-ceo-bragged-about-the-sites-ama-1793850059) to talk about how they protected users’ privacy. The database posted online could be accessed and searched by anyone, so people could look for cheating spouses or try to find someone they knew in the database. Quickly, websites, news venues, and social media began to spotlight specific cases, like the reality TV star Josh Duggar and White House employees. At least three people were reported (https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/suicides-linked-ashley-madison-leak-article-1.2335448) to have committed suicide because of the data release. For this analysis, read the short articles linked below. Then, respond to the questions below, which focus on the nature of the hack, as well as whether any uses of the dataset are acceptable. Feel free to pull in additional sources as you’re thinking through these questions, but make sure you include references for anything you cite/pull content from. You can address each question individually in your write-up and should have at least two paragraphs for each question. 1.First, I want you to think broadly about the ethics/morals involved in this case. One of the assigned articles provides the perspectives of several philosophers on the case. What are your perceptions of the hack, and how does what the company was selling influence them? Do you find yourself less likely to sympathize with the company because it was a “noxious market”? What about the people whose data was released? In other words, does (and should) the context around a data breach influence how we respond to it? 2.The CJR article includes this: “For some journalists, the argument is simple: there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. The data is out there, and as long as we apply the journalistic standards of newsworthiness, public interest, and minimizing harm, why not treat it like any other information?” Discuss whether you agree or disagree with this statement, both in general and in this specific case (which includes highly sensitive information). 3.Some of the data may not have been reliable. As one article noted, users never had to confirm their email address, so in theory, someone could have set up a fake account under someone else’s name. Considering this, did journalists have a responsibility to reach out to anyone they might be included in an article about the hack? 4.Beyond journalists, do you think any use of this dataset is justified/ethical? For example, a large dataset like this is very appealing to researchers who could run a range of analyses looking for patterns across all kinds of data. Under what conditions—if any—could researchers work with this data? 5.Talk about your thoughts on “ethical hacking.” In this case, there were moral questions both about people who used the site (and, based on the site’s desсrіption, may have been cheating on their partners) and the company (which was not protecting user data in ways they claimed). To what extent—if at all—do these factors justify what the hackers did? Do you think the hackers should have approached this in a different way to better get their point across? Reference articles https://medium.com/@dannymack/the-impact-team-manifesto-to-ashleymadison-com-5d4e7225b787 https://www.wired.com/2015/08/happened-hackers-posted-stolen-ashley-madison-data/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/online-cheating-site-ashleymadison-hacked/ https://www.theverge.com/2015/8/19/9178855/ashley-madison-data-breach-implications https://dailynous.com/2015/08/24/philosophers-on-the-ashley-madison-hack/ https://www.cjr.org/criticism/ashley_madison_hack_reporting.php
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