'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal' (2024) air date, plot and how to stream Netflix docu about data breach scandal
Show name: Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal
Platform: Netflix
Date of release: May 15, 2024
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Genre: Documentary, True Crime
Director: Toby Paton
'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal' is a docuseries that explores the sinister world of cybercrime as the series explores the data breach of the website as the intimate data of many users was leaked. The series will be released on Netflix on May 15, 2024
The three-episode long series has been directed by Toby Paton and produced by Minnow Films. 'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal' digs deep into the lives of its users and creators to explore the complete impact of this data breach and its consequences.
The official synopsis of the docuseries reads, "When a dating site for people seeking adulterous affairs is hacked, millions of users' intimate data is exposed, wrecking marriages and destroying lives."
What is Ashley Madison?
Ashley Madison is a Canadian website founded by Darren J Morgenstern in 2002 and its target audience was people who were married or in a relationship and were looking to have an affair.
The company has been condemned for its unethical operation and accused of creating fake accounts to show a larger user base. Ashley Madison, however, announced that its membership base had crossed the 60 million mark in 2017. Ashley Madison has continually faced allegations of making fake female accounts to attract male customers.
Over the years, Ashley Madison has used guerilla techniques to advertise itself after being refused by conventional media. Among these techniques was the creation of fake criticism of Ashley Madison where they would run ads for the website.
What was the Ashley Madison Data Breach scandal?
'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Scandal' is based on the data breach scandal that took place in 2015 when an anonymous hacker or a team of anonymous hackers called the Impact Team stole Ashley Madison's user data and threatened to leak personal information about the clients.
The hackers released information about 2500 users to show the seriousness of the threat on July 21, 2015. Subsequently, about 60 GB of Data was released on August 18, 2015. The data included personal information of the site's users including the money they had paid the site to delete their data.
The hack brought into question, the lack of security measures taken by Ashley Madison. It further shed light on the fact that the company hadn't permanently deleted the data it promised its customers to delete after charging money from them to do so.
Avid Life Media which is now known as Ruby Corporation settled two dozen lawsuits in connection with the breach in 2017 for $11.2 million.
How to stream 'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal'
All episodes of 'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal' will be streaming on Netflix from May 15, 2024.
The docuseries can only be seen with a Netflix subscription, which costs $6.99 a month for the basic plan with commercials.
The regular plan without advertisements costs $15.49 per month, while the premium plan costs $22.99 per month.
'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal' trailer
'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal' will be streaming on Netflix from May 15, 2024.
