Ashley Madison - Copyright Takedown Notices and Data Handling

Ashley Madison (AM), extramarital dating website and victim of the recent and heavily publicised hacking scandal, faces a real risk of complete business failure. Plans to float AM on the London Stock Exchange are recent history and AM is now instructing its lawyers to issue copyright takedown notices in a bid to limit the spread of its hacked user-data and protect its future-viability as a business.

Millions of AM users have been personally exposed in a series of data-releases by hackers in recent weeks. AM was relatively successful in restricting the spread of an initial release of information, but subsequent data releases have been more difficult to control; the hacked information has been posted and is accessed via an anonymous web-browser, which makes it very difficult to identify a person that AM can threaten with legal action.

AM has had posts sharing its data removed across some centralised social media sites, including Twitter and Facebook, by issuing copyright takedown notices.

The hack has left AM exposed to a numerous potential claims centred on data-issues. A woman in the US is suing AM's parent company, Avid Life Media, for storing her details after the paid $19 to have them permanently removed.

The extent of claims for data breaches against AM in the UK remains to be seen.