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Delhi HC stays Rs 1.1 mn penalty on Yahoo
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has stayed the imposition of Rs 1.1 million fine levied by the Union Home Ministry on the Internet portal Yahoo for not imparting information about nearly a dozen yahoo IDs and IP addresses who are suspected to be Islamic Terrorists and Maoists.
On a petition by the portal challenging the government‘s decision, the Court also issued a notice to the Central Government.
In its petition, Yahoo has raised the question on the right to privacy of a company that stores such sensitive data and the extent to which authorities can coerce it to part with the information considered necessary to either track terror perpetrators or thwart future attacks.
The government cannot under the cloak of national security implications bypass legal procedures, the petitioner has argued, claiming the section and clauses invoked by the Government to demand information from Yahoo does not empower the government to do so.
The petition cited many instances of notices sent to the web portal by the government during this year, where it cited an email ID and sought exhaustive details of the user and the IP address used over the past three months.
The firm said repeated notices were received and when it expressed its inability to furnish the information, arguing it was bound by a confidentiality clause, the government levied the fine of Rs 1.1 million for alleged non-compliance with provisions of the Information Technology Act. The intention is to coerce the petitioner into agreeing to toe the line of the government, the petitioner says.
Yahoo said that after receiving the notices demanding information on mail IDs they informed the authorities that the request was not made under proper channels, and it should have come from another authority dealing with cyber security, but the government did not agree.
The company is duty bound to ensure complete confidentiality, and refuse to divulge information, the petitioner said.
Pursuant to the blast outside the High Court early this year, many emails were received by the Ministry claiming responsibility for the blast and it had asked Yahoo to furnish details of these email IDs.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
