The documentary series “The Ashley Madison Affair” on Hulu lives up to its name in every manner possible. It is at once puzzling, exciting, and illuminating. In order to fully analyse the emergence and fall of the sinister and notorious titular online dating site, it combines not just historical video but also unique interviews with significant figures.
This is because the platform caters to unhappy married couples who are having problems with their sexual lives but don’t want to end their marriages any time soon. Additionally, it was the victim of a hacking in 2015 that resulted in the publication of all of the sensitive information around it. So, let’s just learn more about its current situation, shall we?
Is Ashley Madison Still Active?
The founders of Ashley Madison launched their website in 2001 with the motto “Life is Short. Have an Affair” after seeing that adultery was an untapped industry. The fact that behind-closed-doors non-monogamy (cheating/infidelity) is regarded as one of the worst forms of betrayal is, of course, the reason for it, yet many people still find it difficult to navigate.
This has been demonstrated in “The Ashley Madison Affair,” which puts the focus on how it’s pervasive not only in regular households but also in the government and Hollywood. As a result, the company’s main objective changed to helping consumers “have a more perfect affair”—one that includes all the love and unwavering secrecy they could possibly desire.
Nevertheless, everything changed after the 2015 data breach when trade secrets and information about millions of its customers worldwide were leaked to the public in a way no one could have ever envisioned. In other words, the corporation failed its commitment, especially when the stolen documents contained information that had been promised to be permanently deleted upon client request and payment of a charge.
It also didn’t help their reputation as it was later discovered Ashley Madison had at least 70,000 fraudulent (bot-operated) female profiles sending messages to attract and retain male consumers. Then it was discovered that it had not even disclosed its arbitration and waiver terms and conditions, let alone revisions about the same, which led to a class action lawsuit.
The parent business of Ashley Madison agreed to pay $11.2 million in July 2017 to resolve a lawsuit brought on behalf of over 37 million members whose personal information was compromised. Since then, it has avoided any controversy while continuing to be publicly accessible; as of the beginning of 2019, it has a total of over 60 million active customers.
How Much Does Ashley Madison Cost?
Given that Ashley Madison is first and foremost a business, practically all of its features have a fee save for sign-up, and your gender does appear to be relevant. That’s because women have it for free, whereas men must purchase credits after logging in to really message the wives they’re interested in. There is an overall free version, but it has some limitations.
A man can select one of three credit options from the list below: The price per credit for Basic is $59 ($0.59/credit), Classic is $169 ($0.34/credit), and Elite is $289 ($0.29/credit) for 100 credits. The latter also grants users access to Ashley Madison Premium, which provides them a “Priority Man” status in search results and 24 hours of free conversation. The website previously charged a fee for cancellations, but it no longer does.