Update: I’ve changed my mind on this, based on a lot of rational arguments and a little more thinking. I do not have much sympathy for cheaters for a multitude of reasons, but it’s no reason to brand them. And since some of the data is fake, it’s even more problematic.
Not everyone who signed up for Ashley Madison was on it to cheat, and not everyone’s situation is the same. But overall, using a dating site like A.M. demonstrates bad judgement. Very bad judgement. That’s the opposite of the type of people I want to work with.
So I want a simple Chrome extension for Gmail that highlights any email in my inbox that was released in the Ashley Madison hack. I’d like to know if an entrepreneur who is pitching me is/was lying to his or her spouse. I’d like to know if anybody sending me a message has dubious character and judgement.
Again, not a perfect solution and certainly context is necessary, but it would be nice to know.
That would only tell you if they had been on that particular site, assuming nobody added their details maliciously etc. There would also be no way of telling if they were separated at the time they joined etc. It would not tell you if they has engaged in far riskier decisions such as visiting prostitutes without telling their partner, bigamy or casual hook ups / longterm infidelities with people offline. Or indeed worse. So wouldn’t it be a little unfair to judge them based on unverified, out of context data? Or would you ask them at interview stage?
Doesn’t matter. The site is gross and so is the lack of judgement of those who signed up for it. Curious, window shopping, serious buyers, or not.
If their email was used w/o their knowledge, I get that. But what person isn’t going to cling to that excuse, even if/when it was them using it? Give me a break. In prison, everyone claims they’re “innocent”.
I guess that, having been hacked pretty seriously more than once I’m more aware than most of the potential consequences. And before you ask, no, as far as I’m aware, my data should not be among the data on the Ashley Madison site.
I’m uncomfortable that this site even exists. But I do recognise there are grey areas and think that what a single person / a married couple do on or offline consensually and legally is nobody else’s business and should not impact on their career prospects.
As a qualified journalist who has been the subject of a few, I’m uncomfortable with smear campaigns and unverified witch hunts.
I guess it is another example of the whole value of meta data argument…