• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechAshley Madison

Ashley Madison Victim Must Identify Himself, Judge Rules

Jeff John Roberts
By
Jeff John Roberts
Jeff John Roberts
Editor, Finance and Crypto
Down Arrow Button Icon
Jeff John Roberts
By
Jeff John Roberts
Jeff John Roberts
Editor, Finance and Crypto
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 15, 2015, 10:36 AM ET
The Ashley Madison website.
The Ashley Madison website.Photograph by Carl Court—Getty Images

After a massive hacking incident at Ashley Madison this summer, a parade of anonymous “John Doe” victims filed lawsuits against the online adultery site for failing to safeguard their data. Now at least one of those John Does will have to identify himself if he wants to go on with his lawsuit.

In a Monday order, a federal judge in Arkansas rejected the request of the plaintiff, who is now identified only as “an adult male domiciled in Benton, Saline County” to remain anonymous. The judge gave the man until next week to add his name. If he doesn’t, Ashley Madison will be able to dismiss the lawsuit.

“Requiring (him) to proceed without anonymity does not, as Plaintiff claims, expose his “sexual habits (to) public scrutiny,” wrote U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. “Rather, it simply reveals that at one time he was a member of a website that catered to individuals who wanted to have ‘discreet relationships.'”

Except for a handful of exceptions for privacy, people who file lawsuits in federal court must list their name. In this case, the judge ruled the Arkansas man did not qualify for one of the exceptions, which asks if the plaintiff will “be required to disclose information of the utmost intimacy?”

This week’s ruling comes as the latest twist in one of the biggest data breaches of 2015, which saw hackers break into Ashley Madison’s servers and then post details, including email addresses, for 32 million accounts. There have since been reports of extortion and at least one suicide in the wake of the breach.

The Arkansas lawsuit is one of about a dozen class-action cases filed after the hack. The suits accuse Ashley Madison and its parent company, Avid Life Media, of negligence, breaching privacy laws, and failing to honor a “paid delete” service that let users pay extra to ensure they could make their accounts disappear forever.

So far it appears the Arkansas case is the only in which a judge has ruled a “John Doe” must identify himself. While other anonymous cases are pending in other states, Ashley Madison members identify themselves in a few of them. One of these is in California federal court, where a woman, Szilvia Berki, and a man, Chris Hrivnak, are seeking to represent other victims of the breach. Hrivnak says in the complaint he has been subject to extortion attempts since the breach.

You can find a copy of the Arkansas order below.

Subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology, and The Broadsheet, on the world’s most powerful women.

To learn more about the Ashley Madison hack, watch this Fortune video:

Ashley Madison Order via Law360

About the Author
Jeff John Roberts
By Jeff John RobertsEditor, Finance and Crypto
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Jeff John Roberts is the Finance and Crypto editor at Fortune, overseeing coverage of the blockchain and how technology is changing finance.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Elon Musk arrives at the courthouse during his trial against OpenAI
CryptoElon Musk
Elon Musk likes Bitcoin—but he just told a jury most crypto coins are scams
By Jack KubinecApril 30, 2026
1 hour ago
Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., at the Norges Bank Investment Management annual investment conference in Oslo, Norway, on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
EconomyJamie Dimon
For years, the risk Jamie Dimon was most concerned about was geopolitics. His answer has shifted
By Eleanor PringleApril 30, 2026
2 hours ago
google
InvestingMarkets
Google shares hit all-time high on blowout earnings, market cap doubles to $4.4 trillion in just a year
By Michael Liedtke and The Associated PressApril 30, 2026
3 hours ago
AWS
Big TechMarkets
Amazon’s cloud sales are growing the most in 15 quarters. Investors sent the stock down on AI capex fears
By Anne D'Innocenzio and The Associated PressApril 30, 2026
3 hours ago
AstraZeneca CFO Aradhana Sarin
BankingCFO Daily
How AstraZeneca’s 17,000 AI-certified employees are helping it reach a ‘stretch goal’ of $80 billion in revenue
By Sheryl EstradaApril 30, 2026
4 hours ago
agentic
CommentaryAI agents
Why your data infrastructure — not your AI model — will determine whether Agentic AI scales
By Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Stephen Henriques, Catherine Dai and Zander JeinthanuttkanontApril 30, 2026
5 hours ago

Most Popular

Apple cofounder Ronald Wayne—whose stake would be worth up to $400 billion had he not sold it in 1976—says that at 91, he has no regrets
Success
Apple cofounder Ronald Wayne—whose stake would be worth up to $400 billion had he not sold it in 1976—says that at 91, he has no regrets
By Preston ForeApril 27, 2026
3 days ago
‘They left me no choice’: Powell isn’t going anywhere—blocking Trump from another Fed appointee
Banking
‘They left me no choice’: Powell isn’t going anywhere—blocking Trump from another Fed appointee
By Eva RoytburgApril 29, 2026
22 hours ago
Jamie Dimon gets candid about national debt: ‘There will be a bond crisis, and then we’ll have to deal with it’
Economy
Jamie Dimon gets candid about national debt: ‘There will be a bond crisis, and then we’ll have to deal with it’
By Eleanor PringleApril 29, 2026
1 day ago
‘The cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees’: Nvidia executive says right now AI is more expensive than paying human workers
AI
‘The cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees’: Nvidia executive says right now AI is more expensive than paying human workers
By Sasha RogelbergApril 28, 2026
2 days ago
Google Cloud revenue is now 18% of Alphabet's business. Is this the beginning of the end of Google's search identity?
Big Tech
Google Cloud revenue is now 18% of Alphabet's business. Is this the beginning of the end of Google's search identity?
By Alexei OreskovicApril 29, 2026
15 hours ago
‘Take the money and run’: Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke on why the UAE quit OPEC
Energy
‘Take the money and run’: Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke on why the UAE quit OPEC
By Shawn TullyApril 29, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.