Ashley Madison Users Can’t Sue Anonymously

Those suing extramarital affair website Ashley Madison for a cyberhack last year that revealed their identities will not be able to remain anonymous during the trial, a federal judge found. Forty-two plaintiffs are suing the site for failing to live up to its “full delete” promise, which promised to scrub the site of all user data for $19. The hack exposed 30 million users of the site, and revealed that the site may have been creating phony profiles of women to attract new users. Though the courts have allowed anonymity in litigation on grounds of humiliation in the past, the 42 plaintiffs’ argument that suing publicly would have “potentially catastrophic and professional consequences” was not more important than transparency for the group making up a class action, the judge found.