The latest news and comment on dating service Ashley Madison
May 2024
Inside the rise and fall of Ashley Madison: ‘People literally lost their lives’
The seven best shows to stream this week
The Big Cigar to Bridgerton: the seven best shows to stream this week
January 2024
Miranda Sawyer on podcasts and radio
The week in audio: Exposed: The Ashley Madison Hack; Making Sense of Social Housing; Ian Hislop’s Oldest Jokes – review
Not enough users of the hacked infidelity website share their stories; more on the UK’s housing crisis; and a philology of funnies
July 2018
Democrats 'less inclined to cheat on spouses than Republicans'
Analysis finds Democrats used adultery website Ashley Madison substantially less than other US voters
September 2017
Notebook
Who would shed a tear for the sugar daddy with more money than sense?
Peter Bradshaw
Men looking for younger partners via a new website, beware. If you fall for it, there’ll be no sympathy, writes the Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw
July 2017
Hacked dating site Ashley Madison agrees to pay $11m to US-based users
Parent company Ruby Life Inc agrees to pay settlement following class-action lawsuits from plaintiffs who allege company misrepresented level of security
December 2016
Ashley Madison let off with $1.66m fine over huge hack
Customers receive nothing from settlement with US Federal Trade Commission which decided owner Ruby Corp was unable to pay full $17.5m penalty
September 2016
'Ashley Madison? We thought about her as a Hollywood star gone wrong'
TV review
Sex, Lies and Cyber Attacks review – where’s the big Ashley Madison reveal?
August 2016
International report into Ashley Madison hack 'highly critical' of site's privacy
Australian-Canadian privacy report on 2015 hacking makes recommendations on data protection, which Avid Life Media agrees to adopt
July 2016
Ashley Madison facing FTC inquiry a year on from devastating hack
Extramarital dating site under investigation by US regulator a year after entire user database leaked online
April 2016
Shame hacking: attack on dating site for 'beautiful people' is actually pretty scary
Nellie Bowles in San Francisco
Ashley Madison plaintiffs can't sue anonymously over hack, judge says
March 2016
Spouses of Ashley Madison users targeted with blackmail letters
Threatening letters sent to former and current members, as well as their spouses, with the demand: ‘pay $2,500 in bitcoin or have your infidelity exposed’
February 2016
Life after the Ashley Madison affair
It’s six months since hackers leaked the names of 30 million people who had used the infidelity website Ashley Madison. Resignations, divorces and suicides followed. Tom Lamont sifts through the wreckage
December 2015
What will happen in 2016?
Space explorers, genetic scientists, US voters, terrorists and hackers look set to dominate our world next year – but don’t rule out the odd pleasant surprise
November 2015
Breaking up is hard to do, unless you’ve got an agent
David Mitchell
‘The idea is that you pay someone to tell whomever you’re going out with that you’re not any more. It’s $10 for a text, $20 for a letter’
September 2015
Ashley Madison's terms and conditions told users it ran fake accounts
Hacked extramarital dating service ran fake accounts but protected itself legally by admitting to it in the terms of service
Ashley Madison denies allegations of 'fembot army'
Hacked dating site says it has millions of real female users, but fresh questions are raised over alleged fake accounts
Shortcuts
Mama Merkel: the ‘compassionate mother’ of Syrian refugees
Her stance over Greek debt earned comparisons to Hitler, but Syrians have taken to social media to post heartfelt tributes to the German chancellor