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Johannesburg - Data leaked from cheating website Ashley Madison has been transformed into a digital map that shows where the service’s users are distributed across the globe.
Earlier this week a hacking group called ‘Impact Team’ dumped a cache of data containing approximately 30 million email addresses linked to the infidelity website.
The breach has caused shock-waves, exposing the likes of married politicians in the UK and TV stars in the US.
Fin24 reported on Thursday that a number of online tools have sprung up to help spouses easily search the data dump’s email addresses.
READ: Check if your spouse is on Ashley Madison
Meanwhile, emails sent by the founder of AshleyMadison.com have also been exposed in appear in a second data dump on Thursday, plunging the service into further controversy.
READ: Ashley Madison founder emails leaked in new data dump
But now Madrid-based digital agency Malfideleco has taken the data dump of users’ emails - which can be downloaded via torrent tools and websites such as Pirate Bay - and turned it into an interactive map (see below).
Malfideleco’s map - which uses an online mapping tool called CartoDB - does not expose people’s names or email addresses. But the map does indicate how widespread the service is.
“The first step was to remove sensitive data from the database (name, address, email, etc.). The reason for this is twofold: first, we downsize the size of the data to operate with, and on the other, we protect the privacy of the users,” said Malfideleco in a blog post.
“The remaining data contains the user gender, the sign-up date, and the city where they are located. Thus, it is impossible to connect a point on the map with a particular user. Also, we deleted the data from users living in little ‘lifeless’ cities to avoid the effect “we caught you because you are the only user from Boreland-upon-Nowhere,” said Malfideleco.
Malfideleco has explained its methodology further in this blog post. Meanwhile, local technology website MyBroadband has reported that around 49 000 email addresses linked to the .za domain have been leaked in the Ashley Madison hack.
