# 10,000 government email addresses in Ashley Madison list **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 20, 2015, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340 "2015-08-20T13:04:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340/61 "2015-08-24T05:18:31Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > FWIW, our policy is similar for internet usage. Ordering flowers for one’s mother is a given example of acceptable use. What about one’s concubine? ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340/62 "2015-08-24T05:26:14Z")
As I understand people often send racy pictures of each other thru AM. Wouldnt that violate company or government use policies? ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340/63 "2015-08-24T05:30:42Z")
Ashley Madison didn’t have email verification, anyone could sign your email address to open an account, then they would try to force you to pay to have it removed. I know this personally because I have a gmail address that is my last name, some other person with a different first name used that email to register. Anybody can register with any email address, so being on this list is not even evidence that you ever visited the site and a CC number will only show that you may have been stupid to try to pay them to remove you from their system, but it may have been someone registering with someone else’s email address to hid their own identity. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340/64 "2015-08-24T06:06:23Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Hey Josh! You should come over to the Straightdope forums. A lot of people here want to fuck you! Yes, but are they currently married ? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340/65 "2015-08-24T06:57:19Z")
> [@rat\_avatar](#): > > Ashley Madison didn’t have email verification, anyone could sign your email address to open an account, then they would try to force you to pay to have it removed. > > I know this personally because I have a gmail address that is my last name, some other person with a different first name used that email to register. > > Anybody can register with any email address, so being on this list is not even evidence that you ever visited the site and **a CC number will only show that you may have been stupid to try to pay them to remove you from their system** , but it may have been someone registering with someone else’s email address to hid their own identity. Good point! ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340/66 "2015-08-24T21:46:30Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > True enough, but somewhat bitterly amusing, too, given that the government itself gave up my security clearance file. ARRRGH!!! Stop reminding me. I’m still slashing through my important on-line accounts changing security question/answers to a bunch of damn things that weren’t in file.:mad::mad: ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340/67 "2015-08-25T01:10:25Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > What about one’s concubine? Well, as I alluded to, I don’t know whether looking for cheat-date would fall into the same category as porn. If dirty pictures were being exchanged then I am sure it would be so. But I was really just responding to the idea that one’s work email is strictly for work. In my experience, that is not the expectation of my employers. I’m sure some- many- have more restrictive policies, but many do not. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340/68 "2015-08-25T05:14:02Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > It would certainly be within a company’s rights to forbid all non-work use, but in my experience that’s not the norm. I’ve worked for several Fortune 50 companies, and my experience matches yours. Since we are expected to check our work email when we are home these days, checking our personal email at work seems fair. Our policy is basically if you wouldn’t mind someone watching what you type over your shoulder, it is okay. ETA: Or watching over your shoulder while you type. If I could type over my shoulder I could probably start a new career. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340/69 "2015-08-25T23:51:05Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > You are missing the point: when you use an e-mail address _provided by your employer_, you have given up any expectation of privacy because your employer can always see what you’re doing (even if your employer does not forbid personal use of the account). I feel bad for people whose marriages are adversely affected by this leak, to the extent that any cheater is deserving of sympathy. I don’t feel bad for people whose jobs are affected. Not missing the point at all. I’m well aware that your employer, as the provider of your email address (and, presumably, the email server, etc., etc.) can see your email. And yet the Ashley Madison site has been going for years, and presumably many employees, of both government and private firms, have been signed up with the site for extended periods of time. And yet at no time before the data breach did the government, as an employer, apparently care very much that people were using their official email accounts to sign up for the site. And, as others have pointed out, many government and private employers allow the use of work email for non-work purposes, as long as your work correspondence itself is appropriately professional. I’m a (state) government employee, and my own conditions of employment make no mention of disallowing personal use of my work email account. As i said earlier, i still think that people were stupid for using work accounts. If i were going to sign up for a site like Ashley Madison, or even a fairly run-of-the-mill porn site or something like that, i’d probably create a completely separate email address for that purpose alone. But the fact that the government apparently didn’t care about employees using their accounts for this purpose BEFORE the hack suggests that the only reasons their jobs might NOW be affected is that their information has been illegally hacked and disseminated on the web. In fact, your own observation actually supports my argument. As you make very clear, you have no expectation of privacy in your work email. You know this from day one in your job. But this is not the type of privacy i was talking about, and it is not the type of privacy violation that might lead to workplace consequences. I was talking about your right not to have your private details leaked or revealed or compromised by a website that you have a private relationship with. THAT is the type of privacy i said that they had a right to expect, and it is the violation of THAT privacy that might cost them their jobs, because employers that have previously shown little interest in policing work email use might (over)react to the publicity of this case. If their employers were really concerned about this sort of stuff, they could have nipped it in the bud long ago. Or do you think it’s beyond the abilities of the tech people to see whether or not employees are receiving email notifications from sites like Ashley Madison? ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340/70 "2015-08-27T16:50:53Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > … > That said, aside from embarrassing breaches like this, are there normally any consequences from using their work email for something like this? I doubt the IT is reading all emails to reprimand people that may be getting inappropriately friendly with someone that isn’t their spouse. … IT doesn’t read individual emails, but they DO have filters in place to catch things like porn. I have to assume they also have filters in place for specific domains known to cause problems. I had a government email address for a number of years (contractor, not employee) and they definitely had such filters in place - hell, if I sent an email from my regular (employer) email to a client-internal email I risked getting Spoken To. I would say the government should be grateful for employees using their work addresses - lets 'em know who is too stupid to continue as an employee (or at least, too stupid and indiscreet to carry a security clearance - can you say “blackmail”?). > [@OldOlds](#): > > But I was really just responding to the idea that one’s work email is strictly for work. In my experience, that is not the expectation of my employers. > > I’m sure some- many- have more restrictive policies, but many do not. Many employers are fine with incidental use of email - but are very quick to point out that they have the absolute right to look at anything you receive via such email. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-government-email-addresses-in-ashley-madison-list/728340.md?page=3)