{"id":76084,"date":"2016-12-15T01:49:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T06:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=76084"},"modified":"2016-12-14T23:03:28","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T04:03:28","slug":"schneiderman-announces-17-5-million-settlement-with-owner-of-ashleymadison-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=76084","title":{"rendered":"Schneiderman announces $17.5 million settlement with owner of AshleyMadison.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Attorny_General_Eric_T_Schneiderman\"<\/a><\/strong><\/span>Settlement Follows Investigation Finding That Adult Dating Website Maintained Lax Security Practices, Misled Consumers About Its Data Security, And Created Fake Female Profiles To Entice Male Users<\/em><\/p>\n

In Addition to Penalties, Settlement Requires The Website To Implement Stronger Data Security Program And Cease Deceptive Practices\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman joined twelve other states, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday<\/span> in announcing a $17.5 million settlement with ruby Corp., which owns the dating website AshleyMadison.com. The settlement follows an investigation into the July 2015 hack of the website that resulted in the online publication of user information for millions of AshleyMadison.com members, including photographs, usernames, email addresses, communications, and other profile information.<\/p>\n

The settlement includes an immediate payment of $1,657,000 divided amongst the states and the Federal Trade Commission, of which New York will receive $81,330.94. The remainder of the $17.5 million payment is suspended based on ruby Corp.\u2019s inability to pay. Up to 652,627 New York residents were members of Ashley Madison at the time of the security breach<\/p>\n

\u201cThis settlement should send a clear message to all companies doing business online that reckless disregard for data security will not be tolerated,\u201d said Schneiderman. \u201cAll companies have a responsibility to protect the privacy and personal information of consumers, and my office will continue to work with other state and federal authorities to protect consumers from online threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation found lax data security practices including a failure to (i) maintain documented information security policies or practices; (ii) utilize multi-factor authentication to secure remote access; and (iii) formally and adequately train company staff and management.<\/p>\n

The Ashley Madison website also made several misrepresentations regarding its data security, including a \u201cTrusted Security Award,\u201d which appears to have been fabricated and had not been awarded by any certification entity; use of an emblem indicating \u201cCertified Zero Risk TM,\u201d which had not been awarded by any certification entity; and representations that it was a \u201c100% Discreet Service\u201d and \u201c100% Secure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ashley Madison website also offered a \u201cFull Delete\u201d option to consumers.\u00a0 The \u201cFull Delete\u201d option was advertised to consumers as the ability to \u201cremove all traces of your usage for only $19.00\u201d and it was the only option for consumers who wanted to permanently delete their account profiles. However, the website retained certain information of consumers who purchased the \u201cFull Delete\u201d option for up to twelve months in order to address requests for chargebacks.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the website did not delete all consumer information from its system, even after twelve months. In particular, the company failed to delete users\u2019 photographs, and in some instances chat communications, nicknames, and sexual preferences. Many users whose information was disclosed in the July 2015 security breach had purchased the \u201cFull Delete,\u201d in some cases more than twelve months prior to the security breach.\u00a0 As many as 7,989 New York residents had purchased the \u201cFull Delete\u201d option at the time of the breach.<\/p>\n

Ashley Madison also created fake female profiles (which it called \u201cengager profiles\u201d) that they used to entice male users who were using Ashley Madison\u2019s free services, to purchase credits to communicate with other members, including \u201cmembers\u201d with fake profiles. In some instances, it used portions of the profile photographs of actual users who had not had account activity within the previous year as the photographs in the fake profiles that it created, cropping or hiding users\u2019 faces but not their bodies.<\/p>\n

In addition to monetary penalties, ruby Corp. agreed to cease engaging in certain deceptive practices, to not create fake profiles, and to implement a stronger data security program. The multistate enforcement action consisted of Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Dakota, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n

New York was represented by Bureau of Internet and Technology Deputy Bureau Chief Clark Russell, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Kathleen McGee. The Bureau of Internet and Technology is overseen by Executive Deputy Attorney General for Economic Justice Manisha M. Sheth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Settlement Follows Investigation Finding That Adult Dating Website Maintained Lax Security Practices, Misled Consumers About Its Data Security, And Created Fake Female Profiles To Entice Male Users In Addition to Penalties, Settlement Requires The Website To Implement Stronger Data Security Program And Cease Deceptive Practices\u00a0 Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman joined twelve other states, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-jNa","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Attorny_General_Eric_T_Schneiderman.jpg?fit=260%2C221&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}