A massive class-action lawsuit was brought up against Ashley Madison following a hack of their website in August. Up to 2 dozen lawyers representing both current and former users gathered in Saint Louis, Missouri to consolidate the litigation against Avid Life Media.
According to Mediaite, Eastern District Judge of Missouri John A. Ross is now presiding over a class action lawsuit against the cheating site. The district judge has already ordered the plaintiffs to submit a consolidated complaint.
The federal judge allows the case to proceed, however, he also ruled that the site's users had not demonstrated that the risks involved in revealing their identites were high enough to justify overriding the public's right to a free and open court.
Of 50 or so plaintiffs who filed lawsuit, a number of 40 used John Doe or some equivalent pseudonym and only 3 people outed as having accounts on the said website committed suicide following the breach. The anonymous users have until June 3 to decide whether they wish to out themselves as potential cheaters and proceed with the lawsuit. In the meantime. Judge Ross has to make a decision on another aspect of the case, ABA Journal has cited.
Judge Ross noted that not all of the plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit had used the cheating site under a pseudonym. Ars Technica reported that dozens of Ashley Madison's 32 million members filed a lawsuit and are pooling their litigation into a proposed class action against Avid Life Media, the site's parent company.
Last year hackers were successful in intruding Ashley Madison, a website for people seeking extramarital affairs, and dumped personal information about its users online. The data breached resulted in the information of millions of users being leaked on the internet, including that of many who had paid $19 for a "Full Delete" option had not deleted all the information after all, leaving those seeking secret extramarital affairs exposed.
