A nationwide class-action lawsuit has been launched for Canadian subscribers to Ashley Madison, the infamous dating company who recently had their private client list disseminated to the public.
Ontario-based class action heavyweight Sutts, Strosberg LLP and Charney Lawyers announced they will file proceedings against the companies that control AshleyMadison.com – Avid Life Media Inc. and Avid Dating Life Inc.
Elliot Shore, an Ottawa widower who is disabled, is the plaintiff. After 30 years of matrimony, Shore joined the website in an attempt to find company after losing his spouse to breast cancer but did not manage to meet anyone in person from the website.
Shore was one of thousands of Canadian citizens whose private information was disseminated following a data breach at AshelyMadison.com.
Users’ individual names, home addresses, emails and text message history were accessed by hackers in July and made public on Tuesday and Thursday in two separate data dumps.
Many clients paid an extra fee to remove their user information from the site, but found out that the data was left in one piece and exposed following the hacking.
The class action suit is not being filed against the hackers, referring to themselves as Impact Team, who have proudly claimed liability for the leak.
A press statement regarding the lawsuit persuades both current and former users of AshleyMadison.com who live in Canada to get in touch with the law firm.
The move comes after a U.S. lawyer filed a lawsuit late last month for an unnamed female claimant from Maryland Heights, Mo., who had paid $19 so Ashley Madison would eliminate her private information from its site in a strange process called a “paid-delete.”
It is alleged that parent company Avid Life Media, based in Toronto, “failed to adequately analyze its computer systems for vulnerabilities that could expose cardholder data.”
Reports surfaced early Friday that a similar lawsuit will be undertaken in the United Kingdom though details were not released.
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