Ashley Madison company executives announced on Tuesday, July 5, that the website is investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.
According to The New York Times, Ashley Madison is an online service claiming to facilitate extramarital affairs. One year ago, the adultery-focused website was affected by a hack attack that led to an enormous breach of its members' personal data.
Hackers have exposed more than 30 million accounts, badly affecting the trust in the capacity of the website to protect the privacy of its members. Since the last summer,
Ashley Madison dating website has been in repair mode.
Ashley Madison's parent company is Avid Life Media. The chief executive of the company, Rob Segal, said he does not know the focus of the inquiry performed by the Federal Trade Commission. He also added that Avid Life Media began cooperating with government regulators last August.
According to Reuters, a report by consulting firm Ernst & Young found that the dating website Ashley Madison had used bots, to impersonate women. The bots have engaged men subscribers, cheating them to believe the messages are from real women. Segal told the publication that Avid Life Media does not know whether the use of bots is critical to the FTC's investigation.
According to USA Today, in North America, the company quit using the fake bot profiles in 2014. Globally, the bot profiles were discontinued in 2015. However, until late in 2015, some U.S. users still exchanged messages with foreign bots.
Avid has been struggling to rebuild its reputation since the breach. The platform for discreet romantic encounters has been also dealing with public anger and several lawsuits against the company by users whose data was exposed.
Ashley Madison announced on its website in a statement on Monday, July 4, that it has plans to reposition all its brands. The name of the company that operates in 46 countries will not be changed, but the dating website will focus on other niches, beyond extramarital dating.
