Google Tosses Out Pocket Change To Get... >>
<< Yahoo's New APIs: Baby Steps Or Big Deal?
 tdicon 

Culture

by Joseph Weisenthal

Wed, Mar 8th 2006 5:43pm





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.

11 Comments | Leave a Comment

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

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

    A small one.

    Sex sells...

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

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

    No Subject Given

    sex is stolen

    *cough* bittorrent *cough*

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Tin Ear, Mar 8th, 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.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    scooter, Mar 9th, 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.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    giafly, Mar 9th, 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.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Mar 9th, 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.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

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

    Re: Where's all this pornogography?

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

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Mar 9th, 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.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

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

    Re:

    get a girl.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  
    identicon
    ydfkf, Mar 28th, 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!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  11.  
    identicon
    ap, Apr 4th, 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.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Save me a cookie
  • Note: A CRLF will be replaced by a break tag (<br>), all other allowable HTML will remain intact
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Google Tosses Out Pocket Change To Get... >>
<< Yahoo's New APIs: Baby Steps Or Big Deal?
 tdicon 
Follow Techdirt
Flattr rss rss
A word from our Sponsors...
Sponsored Resource
Essential Reading
Techdirt Reading List
Techdirt Insider Chat

A word from our Sponsors...
Recent Stories

Saturday

12:00pm: Sophisticatedjanedoe / FightCopyrightTrolls Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week (48)
9:00am: Awesome Stuff: Cool Product Designs (7)

Friday

7:39pm: Rice University Professor: SkyNET's Gonna Take Ur Jerbs! (56)
6:33pm: Make Art, Not Law (9)
5:27pm: AP's Attempt At DRM'ing The News Shuts Down (13)
5:00pm: DailyDirt: DIY Junk Food (3)
3:40pm: Suburban Express Goes Double Or Nothing On Their Aggressive Behavior (8)
2:34pm: Want To Destroy Any Hope Of Serious Cybersecurity? Give The DOJ Its Desired Backdoor Wiretaps On All Communications (20)
1:34pm: Nintendo Exchanges Goodwill For Control; Issues Mass Monetization Claims On Let's Play Videos (31)
12:32pm: Indian Publishing Firm Can't Take A Little Criticism, Threatens Blogger With $1 Billion Lawsuit, Criminal Charges (13)
More arrow
A word from our Sponsors...

Close

Email This