AshleyMadison.com Facing FTC Investigation

Every time I think I won’t get another story out of the Ashley Madison.com hacking story that occurred last year, up pops another one.

This is the news that the extramarital dating site is now under investigation by US regulator, almost a year after the controversial dating company’s entire user database was leaked online.

To be specific, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is actually investigating the parent company of Ashley Madison, Avid Life Media, according to company executives.

Only appointed in April, chief executive, Rob Segal, and new president, James Millership, who have been given the challenge of righting the ALM ship, told Reuters that while they were aware of the FTC investigation, they were unsure of wat exactly the regulators were examining.

The FTC itself has yet to comment upon the investigation.

I myself am speculating it has nothing to do with the data breach last year that made headlines around the world, and for which the hacker has never been apprehended.

 Just kidding: Of course that’s what it’s about.

The FTC’s consumer protection unit has the power to investigate any case and any company within its jurisdiction when cases where consumers were told their information was secure, but was then handled recklessly or inappropriately.

In a statement on Monday, Mr Segal said: “The company is truly sorry for how people’s lives and relationships may have been affected by the criminal theft of personal information.”

That said the focus of the FTC could also fall on AshleyMadison.com’s use of ‘fembot’ accounts. The data leaked in the 2015 hack suggested that a substantially large number of female users of the site were actually fake accounts, created and operated by Ashley Madison to lure men into using and paying for the site.

Ashley Madison initially denied the allegations, saying that the story had “made incorrect assumptions about the meaning of fields contained in the leaked data,” but then later admitted that actually it was true.

AshleyMadison.com currently has a five to one male to female ratio.