Deleting Browser History For Naught, Identity Of Porn Users Breached

from the what's-the-worst-that-could-happen dept

The online porn industry is geared towards extra security and privacy. Sites require age verification, strictly monitor who is using passwords, and in turn offer the user anonymity by using innocuous business names on credit card bills. So it's a really big deal that the identity of 17 million customers has been beached, with the data freely flowing across the internet, into the hands of fraudsters and spammers. The company responsible, iBill, had been one of the premiere transaction processors for the adult industry. It wouldn't be a stretch to argue that this is a more severe breach than those which have hit financial companies. The FDIC insures people's bank accounts, so lost funds can be recovered. On the other hand, the loss of reputation, from exposing certain online behavior is much more difficult to recover. Fortunately for the responsible companies, the fact that most people don't want to admit their pornography habit, will protect them against lawsuits, or most kinds of public complaints. Update: iBill is now claiming the data isn't from their databases, saying it doesn't match up at all.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Andrew Strasser, 8 Mar 2006 @ 7:26pm

    A small one.

    Sex sells...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    hollums, 8 Mar 2006 @ 9:13pm

    No Subject Given

    sex is stolen

    *cough* bittorrent *cough*

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Tin Ear, 8 Mar 2006 @ 9:53pm

    Again??

    I seem to recall that iBill had some issues before about security and consistency. I had a friend who was using their service at his website and he decided to change payment programs when iBill started messing with his payments. I am not the least bit surprised that they have now suffered a security breach.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    scooter, 9 Mar 2006 @ 12:11am

    Ibill sucks

    These bastards still owe me over $30,000
    They owe millions to webmasters after not paying them for over a year and a half now.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    giafly, 9 Mar 2006 @ 4:01am

    Where's all this pornogography?

    A Google search for pornogography finds nothing interesting. But a Google search for how much iBill sucks finds thousands of results. Apparantly sucks sells.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2006 @ 8:04am

    Re: Where's all this pornogography?

    Most likely reason for your Google search for "Pornogography" is that the word you're searching on doesn't exist...try searching for "Pornography", I imagine your search will be much more lucrative.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2006 @ 8:36am

    Re: Where's all this pornogography?

    hah, that made me laugh. try to say that out loud.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2006 @ 10:22am

    PSA

    If your going to use your credit card with a sketchy vendor, visit your credit card's website, and get a one time use, disposable number.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2006 @ 10:40am

    Re:

    get a girl.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    ydfkf, 28 Mar 2006 @ 4:47pm

    Identity of 17 million customers has been beached

    What are we, whales???? LOL!!!! This also shows the quality of our education too!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    ap, 4 Apr 2006 @ 8:20am

    pornogography is a real word

    didn't you hear? google deleted the old version from the internet and renamed it, then paid off all the dictionaries to change it.

    An insider tells me that the pornogography add on for google desktop & gmail will be available by christmas.. its like a start button for porn addicts.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.