andrew027: A long time ago, when I was working in an Australian office of a large American IT services company, I worked on a project that involved travelling to the corporate headquarters five times, for two weeks at a time, over the course of a year.  Some US-based employees were seconded to the project full time, and some had relocated to the HQ from their home town for the duration.  I met one such lady whose husband had stayed home as they had school-aged children whose lives they didn't want to disrupt.  She told me that they had had a long serious conversation about the possibility of infidelity while they were apart and had accepted that it might happen and had set some ground rules.

I also know personally of one couple who came to an arrangement after one partner had a serious accident.

These choices were theirs to make.  It's not my place to judge them as I have never been in their situations.

So similarly, if someone registers with a website offering hook-ups, it's none of my business.  It doesn't matter whether they are married or not, whether their partner knows or not, or whether they are actively seeking some kind of relationship or are looking at the site for research.  Unfortunately, many people will take some kind of "moral high ground" and tar all Ashley Madison's users with the same brush, with no understanding of their motives or circumstances.  I'm not sure what the hackers hope to gain from releasing this data, but my criticism is aimed at the hackers (and AM's business practices).