The internet does not look very private and anonymous anymore, more so for the individuals totaling thousands whose identities went live online alongside the titles of porn films downloaded.

The firm that did the tracking was

, based in the United Kingdom. It is mandated with the tracking of illegal sharers of files for the pornographic realm and it ended up having its database aptly compromised. This is eluded to the members of 4chan, an Internet forum. Adding to the financial data and private e-mails that belonged to ACS: Law, there were names revealed of specific individuals that the Great Britain Law firm had accused of unauthorized downloading of different porn movie copies.

In a report with the information, it showed a good number of individuals pleading to be shown some mercy, with married males confronted on allegations of having shared gay porn.

While the right number is not yet clear, media estimates have put the number of individuals named in the data ranging from about 4-8,000. ICO, or Information Commissioner’s Office in Britain, overseeing issues of data protection in the nation had its officials promising an investigation on the leak. Since such sensitive data is usually encrypted for safety purposes, many are wondering why ACS: Law had not.

Many Americans are also left wondering whether it could happen in the country, with the ACS: Law leak revealing how precarious the issue of privacy online has become.

Legal experts argue that once such a company like ACS: Law has all the information of an individual, usually very comprehensive, there is a lack of enough legal protection in place.

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