Ashley Madison Amended Lawsuit
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Transcript of Ashley Madison Amended Lawsuit
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI
JACKSON DIVISION
JOHN DOES 1-21, PSEUDONYMS PLAINTIFFS
vs. CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:15-cv-00658-HTW-LRA
AVID LIFE MEDIA, INC., an Ontario Corporation,
and AVID DATING LIFE, INC., an Ontario Corporation
d/b/a ASHLEY MADISON DEFENDANTS
AMENDED COMPLAINT
BENCH TRIAL REQUESTED
Plaintiffs, JOHN DOES 1-21 bring this action against Defendants AVID LIFE MEDIA, INC.
and AVID DATING LIFE, INC. d/b/a Ashley Madison on behalf of themselves. Except as to their
own actions, Plaintiffs aver the following allegations upon information and belief of the investigation
of counsel and facts that are a matter of public record:
INTRODUCTION
1. Defendants operate a dating site under the ASHLEY MADISON trademark as
AshleyMadison.com. The Ashley Madison website, in operation since 2002, is designed to facilitate
discreet intimate adult relationships for individuals who are either married or are in committed
relationships. The website’s motto, prominently displayed on its site, is, “Life is short. Have an
affair.” The promise of secrecy, anonymity and privacy encourage the curious to engage with the
web site.
2. AshleyMadison.com targets individuals who reside in the United States, particularly
Mississippi, as well as outside the United States, encouraging them to engage in adulterous behavior
while assuring its users of its discretion. The website boasts a current membership of approximately
thirty-seven million users and is rated the twentieth most popular adult website in the United States.
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The website has proven extraordinarily lucrative, yielding Defendants $115.5 million in revenue in
2014 alone.
3. The website stores personal and financial information of its users--login details,
mailing addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, payment transaction details, credit card data,
and passwords. Importantly, very highly sensitive user profile data, such as photographs and sexual
fantasies, is also stored in the website.
4. In what can only be described as a nightmare for the users of the website
AshleyMadison.com, on or about July 20, 2015, the hacking collection Impact Team accessed and
downloaded the personal and financial data of approximately all thirty-seven million
AshleyMadison.com customers. Following this theft of information, the hackers threatened that if
Defendants did not shut down the website, they would release all customer information on the
Internet in a data dump.
5. On or about August 18, 2015, Impact Team made good on its promise, dumping 9.7
gigabytes worth of stolen and highly-sensitive personal and financial data-including user identity
information, their sexual fantasies and preferences, and personal and financial data belonging to the
website’s some thirty-seven million users. Reportedly, among the dumped data was data of
individuals who paid an additional fee of $19.00 to have AshleyMadison.com scrub their profiles from
the site, but whose profiles had apparently not been scrubbed.
6. Needless to say, this dumping of sensitive personal and financial information is bound
to have catastrophic effects on the lives of the website’s users.
JURISDICTION & VENUE
7. This Court has jurisdiction over this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332. The
amount in controversy as to the Plaintiffs exceeds $75,000.00, exclusive of interest and costs, and
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Defendants are incorporated and have their principal places of business outside the state in which the
Plaintiffs reside.
8. Venue in this District is appropriate on the basis that Plaintiffs reside within the
geographical boundaries of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.
9. This Court has personal jurisdiction over the Defendants because the Defendants have:
a) intentionally availed themselves to this jurisdiction by marketing its website to
millions of consumers nationwide, including residents throughout Mississippi and this specific
District; and
b) directed tortious acts towards individuals residing within this District, and have
committed tortious acts they knew or should have known would cause injury to the Plaintiff.
PARTIES
10. Plaintiff John Doe 1 is an adult male resident of Madison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 1 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2010.
11. Plaintiff John Doe 2 is an adult male resident of Rankin County, Mississippi. John Doe
2 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2015 prior to the August 18, 2015, data dump.
12. Plaintiff John Doe 3 is an adult male resident of Madison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 3 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2014.
13. Plaintiff John Doe 4 is an adult male resident of Madison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 4 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2012.
14. Plaintiff John Doe 5 is an adult male resident of Lincoln County, Mississippi. John
Doe 5 created an account on AshleyMadison.com on 2014.
15. Plaintiff John Doe 6 is an adult male resident of Madison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 6 created an account on AshleyMadison.com on 2013.
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16. Plaintiff John Doe 7 is an adult male resident of Jones County, Mississippi. John Doe
7, upon information and belief, created the account on AshleyMadison.com between 2010-2012.
17. Plaintiff John Doe 8 is an adult male resident of Rankin County, Mississippi. John Doe
8 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2015 prior to the August 18, 2015, data dump. 18.
Plaintiff John Doe 9 is an adult male resident of Hinds County, Mississippi. John Doe 9
created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2014.
19. Plaintiff John Doe 10 is an adult male resident of Madison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 10, upon information and belief, created the account on AshleyMadison.com in the later part of
2013 or the early part of 2014.
20. Plaintiff John Doe 11 is an adult male resident of Madison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 11 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2014.
21. Plaintiff John Doe 12 is an adult male resident of Harrison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 12 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2013.
22. Plaintiff John Doe 13 is an adult male resident of Hinds County, Mississippi. John Doe
13 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2013.
23. Plaintiff John Doe 14 is an adult male resident of Hinds County, Mississippi. John Doe
14 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2013.
24. Plaintiff John Doe 15 is an adult male resident of Harrison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 15 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2015 prior to the August 18, 2015, data dump.
25. Plaintiff John Doe 16 is an adult male resident of Madison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 16 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2013.
26. Plaintiff John Doe 17 is an adult male resident of Pike County, Mississippi. John Doe
17 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2012.
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27. Plaintiff John Doe 18 is an adult male resident of Neshoba County, Mississippi. John
Doe 18, upon information and belief, created the account on AshleyMadison.com between 2012-
2013.
28. Plaintiff John Doe 19 is an adult male resident of Baker County, Florida, currently.
John Doe 19 created an account on AshleyMadison.com in 2013, while he was an adult male resident
of Rankin County, Mississippi.
29. Plaintiff John Doe 20 is an adult male resident of Harrison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 20 created an account on AshleyMadison.com approximately in 2008.
30. Plaintiff John Doe 21 is an adult male resident of Madison County, Mississippi. John
Doe 21, upon information and belief, created the account on AshleyMadison.com between 2012-
2013.
31. Defendant Avid Life Media, Inc. is a corporation organized and existing under the
laws of Ontario, Canada, with its principal place of business and headquarters in Toronto, Canada.
The corporation owns various companies in the business of operating online dating websites.
32. Defendant Avid Dating Life, Inc. d/b/a Ashley Madison, is a corporation organized
and existing under the laws of Ontario, Canada, with its principal place of business in Toronto,
Canada, and is regularly engaged in the business of operating online dating websites, including
AshleyMadison.com.
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FACTS
A. Defendants and their Business
33. AshleyMadison.com is a dating website marketed to people who are married or in
committed relationships seeking to engage in adulterous behavior. AshleyMadison.com is owned by
Avid Life Media, a privately-held Canadian corporation founded by its CEO Noel Biderman, which
owns various companies that are in the business of operating online dating websites, including
CougarLife.com and EstablishedMen.com.
34. Defendants market AshleyMadison.com to consumers both within and without the
United States. The website has more than thirty-seven million users in forty six countries. It is rated
the twentieth most popular adult website in the United States. Defendants market the website through
television, radio, billboard, and internet advertisements, many of which include its founder and CEO
Noel Biderman as the website’s spokesperson.
35. The website’s business model is based on credits, which users purchase, as opposed to
paid subscriptions. In order to initiate a conversation with another user, one must pay five credits.
Users buy credits from the website and enter their credit or debit card information in order to pay for
the credits.
36. The website also offers to “scrub” or delete user profiles along with all personal
information from the website for an additional $19.00 charge.
B. AshleyMadison.com Stores Personal Information of Its Users in a
Unencrypted Format at the Database Level
37. In order to create an account on AshleyMadison.com, users are required to select a
username and password, personalize a greeting, indicate their location (by country), zip code, date of
birth, type of affair sought, (the options provided are short term, long term, cyber affair/erotic chat, or
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other) height, weight, body type, ethnicity and email.
38. Below the box where users are asked to enter their email, the website promises: “This
email will never be shown or shared.”
39. The website also asks each user to upload a discrete photograph and offers options of
either placing a mask over the user’s eyes on the photo or blurring the photo.
40. In the “Manage Profile” section, users may enter information relating to “My Intimate
Desires,” “My Perfect Match” and “My Personal Interests” among other information.
41. Upon information and belief, Defendants store the users’ personal information
collected in an unencrypted format at the database level. Despite these security threats that may have
even been internally discovered by Defendants’ officers or directors, Defendants published on the
internet a statement calling itself “the last secure space on the Internet.”
C. Plaintiffs’ Creation of AshleyMadison.com Account and Security Breach
42. In or about 2010, Plaintiff John Doe 1 created an account with AshleyMadison.com.
As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 1 created a user name and password
and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs. Plaintiff
subsequently purchased credits and communicated with other members on the website. At least three
years ago, Plaintiff John Doe 1 ceased use of AshleyMadison.com, confessed the same to his spouse
and engaged in rebuilding the marriage and re-earning the trust of his spouse.
43. In or about 2015 prior to the August 18, 2015, data dump, Plaintiff John Doe 2
created an account on AshleyMadison.com. As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff
John Doe 2 created a user name and password and entered his personal information into the website’s
system, including photographs.
44. In or about 2014, Plaintiff John Doe 3 created an account on AshleyMadison.com. As
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part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 3 created a user name and password
and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
45. In or about 2012, Plaintiff John Doe 4 created an account on AshleyMadison.com. As
part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 4 created a user name and password
and entered his personal information into the website’s system.
46. In or about 2014, Plaintiff John Doe 5 created an account on AshleyMadison.com. As
part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 5 created a user name and password
and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
47. In or about 2013, Plaintiff John Doe 6 created an account on AshleyMadison.com. As
part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 6 created a user name and password
and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
48. Sometime between 2010-2012, Plaintiff John Doe 7 created an account on
AshleyMadison.com. As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 7 created a
user name and password and entered his personal information into the website’s system.
49. In or about 2015 prior to the August 18, 2015, data dump, Plaintiff John Doe 8
created an account on AshleyMadison.com. As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff
John Doe 8 created a user name and password and entered his personal information into the website’s
system.
50. In or about 2014, Plaintiff John Doe 9 created an account on AshleyMadison.com. As
part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 9 created a user name and password
and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
51. In the later part of 2013 or early part of 2014, Plaintiff John Doe 10 created an
account on AshleyMadison.com. As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 10
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created a user name and password and entered his personal information into the website’s system.
52. In or about 2014, Plaintiff John Doe 11 created an account on AshleyMadison.com.
As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 11 created a user name and
password and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
53. In or about 2013, Plaintiff John Doe 12 created an account on AshleyMadison.com.
As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 12 created a user name and
password and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
54. In or about 2013, Plaintiff John Doe 13 created an account on AshleyMadison.com.
As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 13 created a user name and
password and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
55. In or about 2013, Plaintiff John Doe 14 created an account on AshleyMadison.com.
As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 14 created a user name and
password and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
56. In or about 2015 prior to the August 18, 2015, data dump, Plaintiff John Doe 15
created an account on AshleyMadison.com. As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff
John Doe 15 created a user name and password and entered his personal information into the
website’s system.
57. In or about 2013, Plaintiff John Doe 16 created an account on AshleyMadison.com.
As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 16 created a user name and
password and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
58. In or about 2012, Plaintiff John Doe 17 created an account on AshleyMadison.com.
As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 17 created a user name and
password and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
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59. Sometime between 2012-2013, Plaintiff John Doe 18 created an account on
AshleyMadison.com. As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 18 created a
user name and password and entered his personal information into the website’s system.
60. In or about 2013, Plaintiff John Doe 19 created an account of AshleyMadison.com.
As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 19 created a user name and
password and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including photographs.
61. In or about 2008, Plaintiff John Doe 20 created an account of AshleyMadison.com.
As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 20 created a user name and
password and entered his personal information into the website’s system.
62. Sometime between 2012-2013, Plaintiff John Doe 21 created an account on
AshleyMadison.com. As part of the process of creating his account, Plaintiff John Doe 21 created a
user name and password and entered his personal information into the website’s system, including
photographs.
63. As a result of Defendants’ failure to maintain adequate and reasonable security
measures to secure the data of the website’s users from being compromised, on or about July 20,
2015, Impact Team, a group of hackers, downloaded highly-sensitive personal, financial, and
identifying information of the website’s some thirty-seven million users.
64. On information and belief, among the data compromised and downloaded were
profiles of individuals who executed the option to scrub their user profiles and all associated data and
paid $19.00 to Defendants to do so, yet Defendants failed to actually scrub the data.
65. Following the breach and downloading of users’ personal and financial information,
Impact Team threatened that if Avid Life Media did not shut down the website permanently, they
would leak the information on the Internet. Avid Life Media refused to shut down the website, and on
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or about August 18, 2015, Impact Team, in keeping with its threat, published some 9.7 gigabytes of
stolen personal information of the website users on the Internet.
66. Each and every John Doe Plaintiff was among those whose personal data was
compromised and made public by Impact Team.
67. This massive data breach could have been prevented had Defendants taken the
necessary and reasonable precautions to protect its users’ information by, for example, encrypting the
data entrusted to it by its users on a database level so that any information hacked and downloaded
appeared in encrypted format. Defendants were aware, or should have been aware, of the need to
secure users’ information, especially in light of the recent rise of massive security breaches on the
Internet and the fact that information contained on its servers is particularly sensitive.
68. Defendant failed to notify Plaintiffs of the breach in a timely manner after learning of
the breach and failed to take reasonable steps to inform Plaintiffs of the extent of the breach.
D. The Data Breach Harmed Plaintiffs
69. As a result of Defendants’ unfair, unreasonable, and inadequate data security, its users’
extremely personal and embarrassing information regarding users’ sexual interests or the fact that
users were seeking or had affairs, users’ addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, credit card or
other payment information, and/or birth dates, and photos are also now available on the World Wide
Web. For many of the website’s users, the publicity of this information has created and will continue
to create irreparable harm.
70. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 1's spouse has moved out of the family home. While knowing of John Doe 1's years old
account, the public humiliation was too much for Plaintiff’s spouse.
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71. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care, the
publicity and salacious nature of the publicity has imperiled John Doe 1's employment.
72. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 2's wife has left the marriage, the relationship with minor child(ren) has suffered, John Doe
2's wife’s own business has suffered from the publicity and John Doe 2 has been the victim of
attempted blackmail by persons unknown.
73. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 3's wife has left the marriage, his relationship with his child(ren) has been irreparably
harmed as well as the relationship with his own parents.
74. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 4's wife has left the marriage, a promotion at work has been imperiled due to the publicity
and salacious nature of the publicity, which has also strained relations with his regular community.
John Doe 4 has been subjected to blackmailing emails from persons unknown.
75. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry-standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 5's wife has left the marriage, he has suffered substantial public humiliation and loss of long-
time friends.
76. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
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John Doe 6 has been terminated from two places of employment, all personal relations have been
damaged, including with his spouse.
77. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 7's employment has been threatened, he has been harassed, his relationship with his
child(ren) has been significantly harmed. John Doe 7 has been subjected to blackmailing emails from
persons unknown.
78. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 8's wife has left the marriage, he receives harassing text messages, his minor child(ren)
is/are bullied at school, he has lost business clients and his community relationships have been
significantly harmed.
79. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 9's wife has left the marriage, he is unable to participate in the daily life of his minor
child(ren), his business reputation has publicly suffered and he is under substantial scrutiny from his
employers and co-workers
80. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 10's marital relations are substantially strained, he has lost clients as a result of the data
breach and publicity, his position in community affairs has been threatened and he has endured
substantial public ridicule and shame.
81. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
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use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 11's marriage has been substantially damaged, his business and business reputation has been
substantially damaged, he has been the subject of public shaming and bullying, he has been sent
obscene objects in the mail with taunting notes and he has endured substantial public ridicule and
shame. John Doe 11 has been subjected to blackmailing emails from persons unknown.
82. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 12's relationship with his minor child(ren) has been substantially impaired, his immediate
and extended family have been harassed by members of the public, his personal relationships have
been substantially impaired, his business and business relationships have been substantially impaired
and he has endured substantial public ridicule and shame.
83. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 13's marriage has been substantially damaged, his relationship with his minor child(ren) has
been substantially damaged, he has been isolated outside his immediate and extended family, he has
had to change his business practices as a result of damage to his professional reputation and John Doe
13 has been subjected to blackmailing emails from persons unknown.
84. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 14's marriage has been substantially damaged, his visitation with his minor child(ren) from a
former relationship has been arbitrarily reduced by his former wife, his business and business
reputation has been substantially damaged, he has become isolated from former relationships and
community activities and has endured public ridicule and shame. John Doe 14 has been subjected to
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blackmailing emails from persons unknown.
85. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 15's wife has left the marriage, he was terminated from his employment, losing his source of
income and attendant benefits, his child(ren) refuse to see him, his professional reputation has been
damaged, he has become isolated from former relationships and community activities and has endured
public ridicule and shame.
86. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 16's wife has left the marriage, he has become isolated from former relationships and
community activities, has been subjected to blackmailing emails from persons unknown and endured
public ridicule and shame.
87. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 17's romantic relationship with his partner has been severely damaged, his professional
business and reputation has been significantly harmed, his relationship with immediate and extended
family has been substantially harmed, he has become isolated from former relationships and
community activities, has been subjected to blackmailing emails from persons unknown and endured
public ridicule and shame.
88. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the personal and financial information placed in its care,
John Doe 18's business and business reputation has substantially suffered, he has been subjected to
harassment by members of the public, his relationships with immediate and extended family has been
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substantially harmed, he has become isolated from former relationships and community activities and
endured public ridicule and shame.
89. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the person and financial information placed in it care, John
Doe 19’s wife has left the marriage and his health has suffered.
90. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the person and financial information placed in it care, John
Doe 20’s relationship with his minor child(ren) has been substantially impaired, his personal
relationships have been substantially impaired as his significant other left the relationship, his business
relationships have been substantially impaired and he has become isolated from the community and
endured public ridicule and shame.
91. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable care and to
use industry standard measures to protect the person and financial information placed in it care, John
Doe 21’s marital relations are substantially strained, a promotion at work has been imperiled due to
the publicity and salacious nature of the publicity, has not been able to perform work duties due to the
shame and ridicule, general relationships have suffered, his position in the community has been
threatened and he has endured substantial public ridicule and shame. John Doe 21 has been subjected
to blackmailing emails from persons unknown.
92. Each of the John Doe Plaintiffs have suffered extreme emotional distress.
93. Additionally, as a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ failure to take reasonable
care and use industry standard measures to protect personal and financial information placed in their
care, Plaintiffs have had their personal and financial information stolen and released to the public,
causing direct and measurable monetary loses in the form of, inter alia, costs associated with the
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detection and prevention of unauthorized use of personal information and costs associated with loss
of productivity from time to ameliorate the actual and future consequences of the breach.
FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION
NEGLIGENCE
94. By accepting Plaintiffs’ personal and financial information, Defendants assumed a duty
requiring them to use reasonable and industry standard of care to secure such information against
theft and misuse. Further, Defendants acknowledged and publicly embraced this duty by touting itself
as "the last secure space on the Internet," and assuring users of its privacy and discretion.
95. Defendants breached their duty of care by failing to timely disclose to Plaintiffs a
breach of security had occurred and their personal and financial information had been compromised,
or was reasonably believed to have been compromised.
96. Plaintiffs suffered injury in fact, including having highly-sensitive personal, financial,
and embarrassing information leaked to the public, and will continue to be injured and incur damages
as a result of Defendants’ negligence and misconduct.
97. Plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages with interest, attorneys’ fees and
costs, and any other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper.
SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION
NEGLIGENT INFLICATION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS
98. Defendants had a duty to Plaintiffs to take reasonable care to protect and safeguard
Plaintiffs’ personal and financial information.
99. Defendants breached their duty when they failed to take reasonable precautions to
safeguard and protect Plaintiffs’ personal and financial information from collection and misuse.
100. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ negligence, hackers accessed and
collected Plaintiffs’ personal and financial information.
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101. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ negligence, Plaintiffs suffered mental
anguish, disability, loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life, and expense of medical care and
treatment.
102. Plaintiffs seek compensatory damages with interest, attorneys’ fees and costs, and any
other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper.
THIRD CAUSE OF ACTION
INVASION OF PRIVACY-PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF PRIVATE FACTS,
AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO PRIVACY
103. Plaintiffs had reasonable expectations of privacy in the private information Defendants
mishandled.
104. By failing to keep Plaintiffs’ private information safe, and by misusing and/or
disclosing said information to unauthorized parties for unauthorized use, Defendants invaded
Plaintiffs’ privacy by:
a) allowing intrusion into Plaintiffs’ private affairs in a manner that would be
highly offensive to a reasonable person;
b) allowing publication of private facts about Plaintiffs, which is highly offensive
to a reasonable person; and
c) violating Plaintiffs’ right to privacy under the United States Constitution
through the improper use of Plaintiffs’ private personal and financial information, obtained for
a specific purpose, for another purpose or the disclosure of it to some third party.
105. Defendants knew, or acted with reckless disregard of the fact that, a reasonable person
in Plaintiffs’ position would consider Defendants’ actions highly offensive.
106. Defendants permitted invasion into Plaintiffs’ right to privacy and intruded into
Plaintiffs’ private affairs by allowing misuse and/or disclosure of Plaintiffs’ private information
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without their informed, voluntary, affirmative and clear consent.
107. As a proximate result of such misuse and disclosures, Plaintiffs’ reasonable expectation
of privacy of their private information were unduly frustrated and thwarted, and they suffered a
serious invasion of protected private interests.
108. In failing to protect Plaintiffs’ private information, and in allowing misuse and/or
disclosure of that information, Defendants have acted in conscious disregard of Plaintiffs’ rights to
have such information kept confidential and private.
109. Plaintiffs therefore seek an award of damages and any such other and further relief as
this Court may deem just and appropriate.
FOURTH CAUSE OF ACTION
BREACH OF IMPLIED CONTRACT
110. When Plaintiffs provided their personal and financial information to
AshleyMadison.com in order to receive the website’s services, they entered into implied contracts
with Defendants pursuant to which Defendants agreement to safeguard and protect such information
from being compromised.
111. Defendants solicited and invited Plaintiffs to sign up with AshleyMadison.com and to
provide their personal and financial information. Plaintiffs accepted the website’s offer and provided
their personal information in order to sign up and, later, their financial information in order to
purchase credits.
112. Plaintiffs would not have provided and entrusted this financial and personal
information to Defendants in the absence of the implied contract between them.
113. Plaintiffs fully performed their obligations under the implied contracts with
Defendants.
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114. Defendants breached the implied contracts it made with Plaintiffs by failing to
safeguard and protect their personal and financial information.
115. The losses and damages sustained by Plaintiffs as described herein were the direct and
proximate result of Defendants’ breaches of the implied contract between them and Plaintiffs.
116. Plaintiffs seek actual and compensatory damages, punitive damages, declaratory and
injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees and costs, and any such other further relief as this Court may
deem just and appropriate.
FIFTH CAUSE OF ACTION
BAILMENT
117. Plaintiffs delivered and entrusted their private information to Defendants for the sole
purpose of receiving services from Defendants.
118. During the time of bailment, Defendants owed Plaintiffs a duty to safeguard this
information properly and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices to protect such
information. Defendants breached this duty.
119. As a result of this breach of duty, Plaintiffs have suffered harm.
120. Plaintiffs seek actual damages.
PRAYER FOR RELIEF
WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs request the following relief:
A. That the Court award Plaintiffs appropriate relief, to include actual, statutory and
punitive damages, disgorgement, restitution;
B. That the Court award Plaintiffs preliminary or other equitable or declaratory relief as
may be appropriate by way of applicable law;
C. Such additional orders or judgments as may be necessary to prevent these practices
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and to restore to Plaintiffs any money or property which may have been acquired by means of
violations;
D. That the Court award Plaintiffs favorable relief as may be available and appropriate
under the law or at equity;
E. Pre- and Post-Judgment Interest;
F. Reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs; and
G. And such other, further and different relief as the Court may deem just and proper.
Respectfully submitted, this the 16th day of November, 2015
JOHN DOES 1-21, PSEUDONYMS
By: /s/ Allison P. Fry
Allison P. Fry (MS Bar No. 100725)
John Arthur Eaves Law Offices
101 North State Street
Jackson, MS 39201
(601) 355-7961
(601) 355-0530 – facsimile
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