Ashley Madison Hack - The End of Privacy?

In his article, Jeff Yang says “the massive hack of the online adultery marketplace Ashley Madison by the aptly named Impact Team may be an extinction-level event for privacy as we know it.” However, was any of the information we put online ever private in the first place? Everything put online was never really “private” in the first place; meaning, the instance in which information put online has always had the ability to someway be found in the first place. When it comes to the internet, people need to accept that with our technology nowadays you have to assume that you won’t have privacy. That doesn’t mean privacy is nonexistent, it just means a part of it in which thought was private actually isn’t. We should care because those who don’t realize the lack of privacy they have online should be aware, so they don’t end up in a situation similar to the Ashley Madison hack.

I believe that privacy probably is gone altogether and I also believe that this is a very bad thing. That being said, I don't think the greatest issue is that we don't have privacy, I think that the biggest issue is the affects of having no privacy. The affects of the Ashley Madison hack, for example, were suicides. Having no privacy is leading to much bigger things, and that's the main issue. Privacy being violated, yes, but the issue is that it is leading to suicide and identity theft. It's more about the affects and less about the causes.

I don't think privacy is extinct at all. For example, when you are in your house, you are virtually unseen. They say it's possible for people to spy on you via your computer's microphone but if you really cared about privacy you could unplug it or disconnect it from the internet. On the web, however, people should understand that it isn't impossible for their private information to be uncovered. For those who understand this concept, this isn't really a bad thing but it could be disappointing. Hopefully, the Ashley Madison hack will open people's eyes to the possibility that their private information can be hacked into and exposed. Hopefully, it will make more people take care when posting private things on the internet.

In reply to Ryan F.. First of all, *our. Secondly, there is plenty of evidence to support why relationships are being harmed and not helped as you claimed. The
Ashley Madison article itself points out that members of couples have committed suicide. And it also implies that the hack has provoked many divorces.

Despite the articles statement that "the massive hack of the online adultery marketplace Ashley Madison by the aptly named Impact Team may be an extinction-level event for privacy as we know it" (Yang), I don't believe privacy is extinct altogether. Only in the world of the internet and anyone connected online is privacy threatened to the point of extinction. There are still places of seclusion and escape in the world, but there is no where to hide online.
The idea of total exposure has both its upsides and downsides. I don't agree that it is just a bad thing because the lack of privacy still has its benefits. Without privacy, there would be no hiding, no crime that couldn't be exposed. People couldn't lie or get away with bad actions, and people would have a greater sense of safety in almost every aspect of their lives. However, who would you ever be able to trust? How could you confine in someone if you knew every lie they have told, all the bad things they have done? Everyone has something to hide, but that doesn't mean they are a bad person. Truly, though, if we knew every thing our best friend had said about us, would you still want to be friends with them? This idea could lean both ways, but I would not label it solely as "bad".
The Ashley Madison hack is for sure the tip of a very, large, very jagged iceberg. This starts a new age, and "the subsequent rapid deployment of publicly available tools that allow not just the media, but everyday individuals, to search for their own names or those of others, has established what will inevitably become a pattern" (Yang). As soon as people start to investigate those around them, noses will be stuck into their business, too. We should care! What people don't understand is that this very much applies to them, not just "faceless corporations, famous figures or powerful government institutions whose privacy has been assaulted" (Yang). It's you. And you should care about it, because you are hiding something.

I do not think that privacy is gone altogether. Although there is all the talk about government surveillance, advertisers targeting customers through cameras, and now this situation, our privacy is not gone from us. Privacy is only craved by those who need it. People walk around town being watched by manekins and being watched through their computer screen cameras without even being aware that they are being watched. If privacy was gone from us it would not be a bad thing at all. The government surveillance agencies all keep their surveillance of citizens on the down low; because of this, most Americans don't even know their privacy is being taken away. We should not care that our privacy is being taken away because if it happens to us all the time without us noticing, then why should we care about it being gone?

I agree with Sam when he says that "this article exaggerated significantly that privacy is completely gone." Sam is right in that this article is only one of the examples of why our privacy is gone. This article makes it seem like there is no other situation where our privacy is being taken away. The article explains how "the massive hack of... Ashley Madison... may be an extinction-level event for privacy" (Paragraph 2). The authors of this article make a big deal about this Ashley Madison hack as if this one hack made our privacy disappear forever. This article is very exaggerated and its exaggeration is only for the interest of the reader.