Kriti Mehrotra
With Hulu’s ‘The Ashley Madison Affair’ as well as Netflix’s ‘Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal’ living up to their title in every way imaginable, we get two documentary series’ that can only be described as equal parts baffling, intriguing, and revealing. After all, they incorporate not just archival footage but also exclusive interviews with key individuals to really explore the rise and fall of the notorious titular online dating site.
We say “notorious” because the platform’s target audience is unhappily married spouses — those who are struggling with their sex lives yet don’t want to throw in the towel on their unions anytime soon. Plus, it fell prey to hacking in the summer of 2015, which ended with every bit of sensitive data around it being released to the public, only for it to still somehow manage to survive and thrive.
Ashley Madison is Still Active With Over 80 Million Sign-Ups
It was back in 2002 when Ashley Madison’s founders established their site — later adding the tagline “Life is Short. Have an Affair” — upon realizing adultery was an open market no one had ever touched. Of course, the reason for it was that behind-the-back non-monogamy (cheating/infidelity) is considered one of the worst forms of betrayal, but it’s still an endeavor most find hard to navigate.
This much has actually been evidenced in the aforementioned shows with a spotlight on how it’s prevalent in not only ordinary households but also within the government as well as Hollywood. Therefore, the business’ primary goal became to enable customers to “have a more perfect affair” — one that’s filled with all the passion they could dream of, along with the unwavering aspect of secrecy.
However, everything changed following the data breach of 2015 as trade secrets and details of its millions of users across the globe got released to the public in a way no one could’ve ever imagined. In other words, the promise the company had made was broken, especially as the hacked documents included information they’d avowed to delete forever if clients requested it upon paying a fee.
The fact it subsequently came to light Ashley Madison had at least 70,000 fake (bot-operated) female profiles sending messages to keep male customers engaged didn’t help their public standing either. Then there was the revelation of it not even disclosing its terms and conditions regarding arbitration or the waiver, let alone updates regarding the same, all of which resulted in a class action lawsuit.
It was in July 2017 that the parent company of Ashley Madison agreed to pay $11.2 million to settle the suit filed on behalf of nearly 37 million users whose personal details were leaked. Since then, it has managed to remain out of any controversies while still openly operating — as of early 2019, it has a total of over 60 million active customers.
Ashley Madison: Varied Credit Plans for Users
Considering the fact Ashley Madison is first and foremost a business, there is a cost attached to almost every single one of its features except sign-up, but gender plays a role here. That’s because a male must buy credits upon logging in to actually message the spouses they’re interested in, whereas the females have it for free — there is an overall free version, yet it’s limited in its abilities. You can not browse Ashley Madison’s vast member base without signing up.
There are three credit plans from which a male can choose: Basic gives 100 credits for $59 ($0.59/credit), Classic allows 500 credits for $169 ($0.34/credit), and Elite brings 1,000 credits for $289 ($0.29 per credit). The latter also gives users access to Ashley Madison Premium, which enables them to have 24 hours of free chat along with a “Priority Man” status in search results. The website used to have a cancellation fee as well, but it has since done away with it.
Read More: Noel Biderman’s Net Worth: How Rich is Ashley Madison’s Ex-CEO?
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