Just two short weeks ago we explained what happened to Tinder's predecessor, Adult FriendFinder, which was a website whose sole purposes was finding, to put it bluntly, a fuck buddy. Just like Tinder currently under IAC's wing, we explained, [4] back in 2011 when the early stages of the current
gargantuan tech bubble were only taking shape, nobody could hide their
enthusiasm about the stock.
So imagine our shock when we see today that Adult FriendFinder has been hacked and, as CNN reports, [5] more than 3.5 million people’s sexual preferences, fetishes and secrets have been exposed...
But it gets better, as Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger explains, [6] accusations are emerging that Federal employees used it from government emails.
Before I get into the meat of this story, let’s briefly cover the background of the Adult FriendFinder hack. From CNN [5]:
More than 3.5 million people’s sexual preferences, fetishes and secrets have been exposed after dating site Adult FriendFinder was hacked.
Already, some of the adult website’s customers are being identified by name.
Adult FriendFinder [7] asks customers to detail their interests and, based on those criteria, matches people for sexual encounters. The site, which boasts 64 million members, claims to have “helped millions of people find traditional partners, swinger groups, threesomes, and a variety of other alternative partners.”
The information Adult FriendFinder collects is extremely personal in nature. When signing up for an account, customers must enter their gender, which gender they’re interested in hooking up with and what kind of sexual situations they desire. Suggestions [8] AdultFriendfinder provides for the “tell others about yourself” field include, “I like my partners to tell me what to do in the bedroom,” “I tend to be kinky” and “I’m willing to try some light bondage or blindfolds.”
I don’t relish in the fact that people’s private information is being exposed in this manner; however, if federal employees are using the site via government email addresses, that is newsworthy.
Andrew Auernheimer [9], a controversial computer hacker who looked through the files, used Twitter to publicly identify Adult FriendFinder customers, including a Washington police academy commander, an FAA employee, a California state tax worker and a naval intelligence officer who supposedly tried to cheat on his wife.
Asked why he was doing this, Auernheimer said: “I went straight for government employees because they seem the easiest to shame.”
Millions of others remain unnamed for now, but anyone can open the files — which remain freely available online. That could allow anyone to extort Adult FriendFinder customers.
Again, I don’t get any pleasure in the public shaming of people for these sorts of things, but RT adds [10]the following to the story:
The men behind the screen names “Eaglesfan_6969” and “Verywilling2011” are looking for sex, and they’re doing it from government-provided email accounts, according to data pilfered from a hacked dating website.
A trove of personal information pertaining to paid account holders of AdultFriendFinder, a website that touts itself as letting users “Find a fuck buddy for online sex,” has surfaced, and its contents suggest employees of local and federal agencies, including law enforcement, the Navy and the Federal Aviation Administration have used their government-provided email addresses to search for partners.
Among account holders identified through the leaked details include individuals with emails linked to the United States Department of Homeland Security, the FAA, the government of Augusta, Georgia; the state of Virginia and the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC.
DHS guidelines prohibit employees from using their government email for “Engaging in any activity that would discredit DHS, including seeking, transmitting, collecting or storing defamatory, discriminatory, obscene, harassing or intimidating messages or material.” The Pentagon says in a 2013 report that “Federal Government communication systems and equipment (including Government-owned telephones, facsimile machines, electronic mail, Internet systems and commercial systems when the federal Government pays for use) shall be for official use and authorized purposes only.” There is an exemption in place for “morale and welfare” communications by employees on extended deployments.
If true, I’m sure nothing will happen to them, as federal employees, like bankers, are essentially above the law.
* * *
Given this, however, one wonders just how exuberant IAC is over its valuation of Tinder now? ...and how fast people will be logging off...
[11]
Still, all that really matters for the current generation of sophisticated
investors is eyeballs (or in this case some other anatomical organ).
