VICE News
The widespread reaction to the now-public trove of stolen user data from extra-marital dating service and social network Ashley Madison has generally not been one of sympathy — but it is quickly becoming clear that there is a darker effect of the massive hack, which could now be threatening people lives.
On Tuesday, a hacktivist group called Impact Group posted nearly 10 gigabytes of Ashley Madison users’ personal information online, including email and street addresses, partial credit card numbers and transaction details, passwords, physical descriptions, and partial names.
But the data is not limited to emails and names — it also includes deeply personal information about people’s sexual preferences and habits. In other words, if you had an account on Ashley Madison, everyone in the world can now see if you are interested in cross-dressing, spanking, or any of the other 62 available sexual fantasy categories on the site. …
According to a partial list of Ashley Madison users posted on PasteBin.com, there is at least one iran.gov email. In Iran adultery is illegal, and can be punished with stoning, lashing, or death. There are also more than 100 Vatican email addresses on the Pastebin list. If these are linked to the identity of priests, the users could be ex-communicated from the Catholic Church.
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