Yeah. I don’t feel bad for them, and it’s a small victory for decency.

The adultery-facilitating website, AshleyMadisondotcom, has been ordered to pay a $1.6 million settlement to the Federal Trade Commission, as well as state charges, due to what the court has found to be misleading information given to the creeps who frequent the site, as far as its privacy practices.

Ashley Madison’s parent company, Ruby Corp., agreed to a $17.5 million fine, though 90 percent of the amount was suspended due to inability to pay.

Ruby will also be required to increase security on its sites.

Ashley Madison’s website boasted icons claiming a security award and certification that both appear to have been made up.

Excuse me while I point and laugh.

About 37 million unfaithful reprobates had their information breached. Some of them had paid an extra $19 fee for an option to “fully delete” all of their info, once they left the site.

That didn’t happen.

…Still laughing…

“This settlement should send a clear message to all companies doing business online that reckless disregard for data security will not be tolerated,” New York Attorney General Schneiderman said in a statement.

I hope the experience also sends a message to those who have reckless disregard for their marriage vows.

I get that we’re not living in a culture that criminalizes character flaws (supposedly). I definitely don’t want the government to be the arbiters of morality.

That being said, the slide in traditional mores in this nation allows for such sites to exist and the bigger story isn’t that they were punished for not protecting the privacy of their users, but that moral decay drew these people to this site, in the first place.