Ashley Madison.com is known as an "infidelity website." The site, owned by Avid Dating Life, Inc., has as its motto, "Life is short. Have an affair." Its motto gives fairly clear insight into its purpose: the site allows people who want to have an affair to meet and then proceed with that affair. However, the site has its issues and stakeholders.

For example, on July 15, 2015, Ashley Madison had a data breach that resulted in the leak of personal information about site users, including government officials \((1,405\) in the U.S.), employees (311 from IBM) celebrities, college students (Cornell had the top number at 273), clergymen, military (6,700 from the army and 1,600 from the navy), and quite a few fake female clients. \({ }^{185}\) The site was hacked by the Impact Group, a vigilante group that seeks to site certain sites down because "they profit off the pain of others." \({ }^{186}\) The hackers initially released a few names obtained from the site with a demand that the site be shutdown. When that demand was not met, the hackers released the names of 32 million more site users. After the breach, Ashley Madison's CEO, Noel Biderman stepped down.

There is a class-action suit pending by Ashley Madison users who had their identities revealed or private information compromised. \({ }^{187}\) But, one of the obstacles the suit has hit is that the plaintiffs bringing the suit do not want to disclose their true identities and the court has held that they must in order to file suit.

Apart from the data breach issues are the connections made via the site. Robert Schindler has filed suit against the site and its parent company for alienation of affection because his wife, Teresa Moore, found Eleazar "Chay" Montemayor, a married professor of civil engineering on the site, and the two had an affair. The affair resulted in the break-up of Schindler and Moore's 13-year marriage. Ms. Moore and Mr. Montemayor are now married. \({ }^{188}\)

The suit was brought in North Carolina, one of the few remaining states that permits recovery for alienation of affection. The twist in the case is that the suit asks for third-party liability for the alienation of affection. That is, Mr. Schindler does not seek recovery from Mr. Montyemayor; he seeks recovery from the company that he says facilitated the affair.

Noel Biderman, the former CEO, an attorney and former sports agent who created the Ashley Madison site, says that what he set up through his company is no different from what telephone companies and hotels do, which is facilitate affairs. However, Mr. Schindler's lawyer has argued that hotels and telephones have different purposes in society. Ashley Madison has only one raison d'etre, which is to facilitate affairs. It serves no other purposes.

The concept of vicarious liability has been applied in Internet cases, such as when YouTube had a duty to take down videos that infringed copyrights once it was aware of the ownership and the damage that would result. In previous technological eras, Napster was shutdown because its sole purpose for existence was to facilitate the downloading of copyrighted music from the Internet without payment. However, this case is unique in that the site facilitated the contact but not the affair itself.

In July 2016, the FTC announced an investigation into Ashley Madison's business practices, alleging that the site was misrepresenting the backgrounds and file information on individuals listed on the site. The company has indicated that it is cooperating fully with the FTC in its investigation. The FTC did fine a similar British site, JDI Dating, after its investigation found that the company was faking profiles.......................

Discussion Questions 1. The Ashley Madison website does not violate the law, so why do we worry about the site?
2. List the stakeholders affected by the business Ashley Madison is running.
3. What other consequences do you see from the site's operations and for whom?