Notorious online dating service Ashley Madison’s Chief Strategy Officer, Paul Keable, exclusively tells In Touch that the site’s members are more “truthful” than those on other dating services.
“There’s an interesting irony to our members. Obviously, there, there’s a disloyal nature to a degree, but I would argue that our members are probably the most truthful online daters compared to the people over at Match or Tinder,” Keable claims of Ashley Madison, which is marketed to married people who are looking to have an affair.
The Canada-based dating site, which is also known as a social networking service, was launched in 2001 with the catchphrase, “When monogamy becomes monotony.” However, the slogan was later changed to, “Life is short. Have an affair,” which increased Ashley Madison’s popularity. At the same time, the site was controversial because it promoted infidelity.
In July 2015, Ashley Madison was hacked. The site’s customer profiles were stolen, and the hackers threatened to release the data — which included members’ emails, names, home addresses, credit card details and sexual fantasies — if the dating service did not shut down permanently.
The hackers, known as the Impact Team, released all of the customer data, including the transactions they made while using the site, one month later after Ashley Madison parent company Avid Life Media insisted that their site was secure. The private emails of former CEO Noel Biderman were also released.
“This event is not an act of hacktivism, it is an act of criminality,” the company said in a statement at the time. “It is an illegal action against the individual members of AshleyMadison.com, as well as any freethinking people who choose to engage in fully lawful online activities. The criminal, or criminals, involved in this act have appointed themselves as the moral judge, juror, and executioner, seeing fit to impose a personal notion of virtue on all of society.”
Several celebrities, including former 19 Kids and Counting star Josh Duggar and Jersey Shore star Snooki’s husband, Jionni LaValle, were exposed as Ashley Madison customers after the data leak. Snooki, 36, denied that LaValle, 37, was associated with the website in 2015. Meanwhile, Duggar, 36, admitted to using the dating service.
“I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife,” the disgraced reality star said in a statement. “I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.”
The hack is the focus of Netflix’s new three-part documentary, Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal, which premiered on May 15.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
InTouch
