An unidentified Benton man has filed a lawsuit against the company that runs the adultery website Ashley Madison, saying the site's recent security breach compromised his personal financial information and that of other Arkansas members.
The class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday in Saline County Circuit Court against Avid Life Media Inc. and Ashley Madison on behalf of "John Doe" and all other Arkansas residents who may have been affected by the breach. Similar lawsuits have been filed in California, Texas, Missouri, Georgia, Tennessee and Minnesota against the Toronto-based company.
The suit seeks a jury trial and asks for compensatory and punitive damages.
The lawsuit alleges that Avid Life Media violated a federal act regarding the storage of consumers' electronic information, was negligent, breached implied contracts, and violated the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and Arkansas Personal Information Protection Act.
In July, hackers infiltrated Ashley Madison's website and downloaded private information, including names, emails, home addresses, financial data and message histories. The information was posted publicly online Aug. 18 and Aug. 20 after the company didn't comply with the hackers' demands to shut down the site.
There are an estimated 37 million registered users of Ashley Madison, a website that carries the motto: "Life is short. Have an affair."
In Arkansas, more than 6,000 names were listed on the site, with users from Little Rock, Fayetteville, Rogers, Conway and Bentonville showed as being most active.
The lawsuit states the plaintiff created an AshleyMadison.com account in approximately 2010.
The suit notes that names, addresses, credit or debit card numbers, card expiration dates and three-digit security codes on the cards were compromised during the breach.
"This massive data breach could have been prevented had [the] defendant taken the necessary and reasonable precautions to protect its users' information," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit states the defendants also failed to notify consumers in a timely manner of the nature and extent of the breach -- a failure that prevented consumers from "protecting themselves from the breach and cause plaintiff and putative class members to suffer financial loss."
On Friday, the chief executive officer of Ashley Madison's parent company stepped down. Avid Life said Noel Biderman's departure was effective immediately and was a mutual decision.
"This change is in the best interest of the company and allows us to continue to provide support to our members and dedicated employees," a company statement said. "We are steadfast in our commitment to our customer base."
The company has offered a reward of $500,000 Canadian, or $378,204 in U.S. currency, for information leading to the arrest of the hackers. The company also said it is cooperating with international law enforcement agencies in their investigations.
The privately held Avid Life grossed $115 million in earnings last year, according to tax documents and figures Biderman shared with Forbes.
Information for this article was contributed by Spencer Willems and Brian Fanney of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Bree Fowler of The Associated Press.
State Desk on 08/29/2015