The website didn't respect their customers or take security seriously, it seems. A lot of the users are idiots with little respect for others, while others are innocent. At the same time, every single user is a victim, and every hacker involved is a criminal. That said, because a large portion of the users are probably idiots, I also understand the hackers. Still, I don't think it's acceptable to hack sites. The site is immoral but not significant in any greater sense. I'm all for hacking stuff for ethical reasons but I think the positives outweigh the negatives only at a scale greater than this. It's not like Ashley Madison was working against human rights or anything.

And just for the record, as far as I know, Ashley Madison never validated the email addresses registered there. That means anyone could have registered any email address there for any reason. That means every single one of you is potentially on the list of Ashley Madison users. It's unlikely but possible.

On this situation, everybody loses: the users, the company, the families of the users. Everyone except the hackers. And I wouldn't pick a side on this because both sides cannot be defended. Sure, unfaithfulness is probably one of the worst things a couple can go through. But just exposing all names out there doesn't help anyone. I'm not saying the data should've been kept secret so everyone kept doing the affair without no one being the wiser, but unfaithfulness in particular cannot be solved like this. Making public a situation like this for hundreds of millions to see just makes matters worse for the Ashley Madison users. I do believe cheaters should be discovered, but the dirty laundry must be kept inside the closet.

This for me lowers my perception on hackers even more. The fact that these scum keeps exposing personal info or hack cars, instead of doing really groundbreaking things is why they don't deserve to be applauded by anyone.

I measure my own morality in my own personal way, like every other person should do.  I'm happily married and would never cheat, and never have.

But it's not my place, nor yours, nor the hackers', nor anyone else's to pass judgement.  It's not your right to determine what's moral and what isn't.  It's easy for you to pass judgement sitting there behind your keyboard from your perfectly moral (in absolutely every way) life, but until you know the circumstances of each and every person who signs up for an account on that site, you have absolutely no right.

Well maybe your perspective will change when your spouse cheats on you. What do you think about that? I'm sure you would have written the same thing word for word had you experienced the consequences of your spouse having a year long affair, getting fucked random places behind your back. What do you think?

Have you considered that this information leak can not only ruin the cheaters but the spouses' life too? I agree cheaters deserve their comeuppance, but it should be in a way where friends or strangers don't have to know about it because it's not their business. Things like this should be handled delicately, you know, with a divorce lawyer and friends not knowing about it. It could cause embarrassment for the cheater and his spouse. Three people committed suicide due to this, and it shouldn't have escalated that far.

Same, and I dont condone cheating.

However this is a twisted thing, this hack is probably going to ruin alot of lives that might not have been.

Whos to say some guy (or girl) that cheated once or twice, didnt regret it and went on to live a normal life afterwards with his family non the wiser?

This cheats the family that chance. Also its more likely to end up a really messy devorce, which again will just hurt the families (people cheated on).

I think you're trying to get a rise out of me.  That's what I think.  But to answer your question, I would deal with it personally and privately with my wife, and however that resolved itself, it would have absolutely nothing to do with the millions of people who just had their information stolen and publicly displayed.  And it wouldn't change my philosophy of staying the fuck out of other people's personal lives, whether their actions fit into my view of "morality" or not.

It is people's own choice to commit suicide. You can't blame that on somebody else. The cheater should be publicly shamed. Of course they want everything done in secret and in the dark where nobody knows about it. Why should the world revolve around these filthy pieces of garbage? They are running lives out of complete selfishness, and then we need to consider their feelings and keep it a secret? Give me a fucking break dude. They ruined their own lives, not the hackers. They killed themselves, not the hackers. And they deserve the misery that they themselves have brought upon their own lives 

I'm not trying to get a rise out of you, I'm just passionate about this subject because I've seen what this kind of shit does. 

Props to you for trying to be as rational as possible about it, but I'll tell you now, it might be easier said than done. Once you really consider that this filth was watching a movie right next to you while thinking about somebody else, still having sex with you, not caring what kind of shit is being spread from fucking someone else or multiple other people, and lies to you on a daily basis about what they are doing, it might be s little bit harder than you think, and you just might be really thankful that they were exposed before you got somebody else's std. And that's another thing, now you have to go out of your way to get tested unless you are cool with not being 100% sure.

Edit: I'm also with you on staying out of people's personal lives, I hold very strong libertarian values. But the true victims are the people cheated on, and they have every right to know what is going on. Anybody in the world would tell you that they would rather know that they are being cheated on rather than living in the dark about it, and they are absolutely owed that 

You know that studies claim about 60%+ of every couple at some point cheat on one another? (man & women).

Not all these keep doing it, it happends once or twice and thats it (they stop on their own, without haveing gotten caught).

Everything goes back to normal, and they live a normal life with spouces happily non the wiser. No one suffers from it.

This hack isnt going to help anyone, its robbing people of their chances of a normal life.

Its going to result in alot of devorces that atleast will be alot more hurtfull and messy than normal.