A few days ago, we reported that AshleyMadison, the extramarital dating site, were being sued by a former worker for $21m.
Doriana Silva has sued the site, claiming she injured her wrists by typing up information for over a thousand fake profiles.
AshleyMadison called the lawsuit “frivolous” in a statement to Business Insider and also sent the site photographs of Silva apparently riding a jet-ski, after finishing her time at AshleyMadison.
Now Business Insider has taken a legal look at whether whether these fake profiles Silva claims to have been inputting, are legal or not.
They speak to Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara Law, who says the site could be in a legal grey area.
AshleyMadison openly admits in its terms of agreement that some of the “Ashley’s Angels” may be fictitious and not belong to a real person at all.
The terms say:
“The purpose of our Ashley’s AngelsTM is to provide entertainment, to allow you to explore our Services and to promote greater participation in our Services.
Ashley’s AngelsTM attempt to simulate communications with real members to encourage more conversation and interaction with users.
We also use Ashley’s AngelsTM to monitor user communications and use of our Service to measure compliance with the Terms.
Further, we may use Ashley’s AngelsTM in connection with our market research to enable us to analyze user preferences, trends, patterns and information about our customer base.
Ashley’s AngelsTM are not intended to resemble or mimic any actual persons.”
Although this is clearly stated in the terms, AshleyMadison could still be in legal trouble – Match.com were sued by previous users for keeping profiles live to make it look like they had more active subscribers than they actually did.
AshleyMadison could face “enforcement actions” from the Federal Trade Commission, who “hate the idea that there is fake information on the Internet” says Goldman.