Ashley Madison Class Accord Question: What If Claimants Don't Want to Be Found?
Many users gave fake email or street addresses when setting up accounts and might not want notices of the deal sent to their businesses or home addresses.
July 21, 2017 at 10:06 AM
17 minute read
The settlement over Ashley Madison's data breach presents a unique conundrum: How do you find class members who don't exactly want to be found?
From the start, anonymity has plagued lawsuits over the 2015 hack that compromised the personal information of 37 million subscribers to AshleyMadison.com, an online dating site that targets people looking to have an affair. Many class action attorneys, questioning who would want to be identified as a plaintiff, bowed out of the litigation. Those who pursued cases asked a federal judge in Missouri to allow their clients to use pseudonyms, but they weren't successful.
Heading into this month's $11.2 million settlement, there was the potential for embarrassment on both sides. The deal contains provisions that acknowledge the problems inherent in sending out notices and distributing payouts to class members in this case: Many of them gave fake email or street addresses when setting up accounts and, truth be told, they might not want notices of the deal sent to their businesses or home addresses.
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