Owners of the Canadian website Ashley Madison, which encouraged users to commit adultery, have agreed to pay $11.2 million (£8.57 million) to customers whose details were published after its database was hacked in 2015.
The names and credit card details of 37 million users were leaked, including an estimated one million Britons.
Among the victims was a 56-year-old pastor at a Baptist college in New Orleans who committed suicide after the attack, leaving a note for his wife in which he expressed his regret for “having his name on there”. A police captain in Texas also killed himself.
Many received blackmail messages, warning that if they did not make a payment of around $1,000 in Bitcoin, their partners would be informed.
Those suing have agreed a proposed settlement with Ruby Corp, the rebranded company which owns Ashley Madison. Ruby did not admit wrongdoing but said it reached the settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of continued litigation.
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After the attack, it was discovered that 70,000 female user profiles on the site were in fact controlled by “fembots”: computer programmes that engaged male users to encourage them to sign up for extra, paid services.
The bad publicity, however, does not seem to have been bad for business. The site had 5 million users in 2015 — by September last year it had 49 million.