Ashley Madison pivots to shake cyberattack ghost, promises privacy this time

This once disgraced dating site sheds its scandalous branding in favour of “ethical discretion.”

Ashley Madison, the well-known “married dating” website, is steering away from its original brand identity and, ironically, taking a privacy-focused approach to dating after suffering a devastating cyberattack in 2015.

The site, with its first tagline “Life is short. Have an affair,” was originally a playground for people in monogamous relationships looking for some fun on the side.

But now, after two decades of being known as the “married dating” site, Ashley Madison hopes to win users over with a new tagline: “Where desire meets discretion.”

Why did Ashley Madison rebrand?

The company noticed a shift in usership, as Ashley Madison’s signup data revealed that over half of new users (57%) identified as single.

This seemed to signal that the once adulterous dating site had transformed from a playground for the married to a space for daters who value privacy, as the company suggests.

Privacy in the digital age has been described as “the new luxury,” as quoted by Paul Keable, chief strategy officer at Ashley Madison.

This is why the company claims to offer “ethical discretion” that ensures privacy, regardless of relationship status.

Whether users are single, separated, divorced, or non-monogamous, Keable says, “Our community is united by a desire to keep their private lives exactly that, private.”

Keable seems to conveniently omit married people from this list of potential new users, despite Ashley Madison’s promise to deliver “ethical discretion” to millions of users and its history as an adulterers' playground.

Ashley Madison: the discreet dating site

Ashley Madison cites growing fatigue with the “social media era” as the reason for its shift to discreet dating.

North Americans seem to desire discretion after spending multiple decades parading their personal lives online, according to a YouGov study commissioned by the company.

“As the oversharing age hits a wall, Ashley Madison is positioning itself as the antidote to the digital fishbowl for discreet daters,” the company states.

Daters are now worried that their information may be screenshotted and shared on different platforms.

Users are also tired of unrelenting messages from matches or unwanted attention from people on dating sites, according to the study.

Almost half (47%) of North American adults are mindful about which aspects of their personal life they share online, and only 9% feel comfortable sharing most of their personal life online.

Is Ashley Madison safe to use?

While the site seems to push the idea of discrete, private dating on us, the irony of this rebrand isn’t lost amid the company’s sea of promises.

Ashley Madison suffered a catastrophic and very public cyberattack in 2015, which exposed the names, email addresses, addresses, credit card information, and even sexual fantasies of around 32 million users.

The breach naturally ruined many relationships and lives while also forcing some of the exposed users to suicide.

This cyberattack was highly publicized and brought hacking into mainstream media for perhaps the first time.

The company was thrust into turmoil but remained operational despite hackers demanding that Ashley Madison pull the plug for good.

Although the Impact Team, the hackers behind the breach, intended to stop the adultery, Ashley Madison remained.

The only fallout that occurred involved a change in leadership, a slight restructuring, and a $576 million lawsuit that was settled for a fraction of the asking price.

Whether the former CEO’s, Rob Segal, promises surrounding increased security measures are true remains unknown.

Cybernews has reached out to Ashley Madison for comment.

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