STD Clinic Database Breached, Porn Stars’ Addresses and Real Names Leaked

Yesterday a private health clinic that conducts the testing of Los Angeles’ porn industry told NBC LA that the database holding tens of thousands of patient records had been compromised and that this information had been made available online. The statement from the Adult Industry Medical Foundation (AIM) comes several days after industry insider Mike South first posted about Porn Wikileaks, a site devoted to exposing the real names and addresses of adult performers and the connection of the leaks to AIM.

South, like many in the industry, had known about Porn Wikileaks for a while, but, like many in the industry, had held back from making it public — until the connection between the leaks and AIM became undeniable.

“People started emailing me saying ‘I only used that performer name one time, ever and that was when I tested at AIM,'” South writes in his blog. In California, adult performers are tested at least once a month.

“First I verified two people, then two more, both of whom shot only one time, but were required to get an AIM test,” South continues. “All made up a performer name and of the four, two never even used the same name on a model release and one never even shot, the shoot fell through. Yet all the names and hundreds, even thousands of others appear on this real name list on this site.”

The number, according to Gawker is over 15,000, though, as South has noted, not everyone on the database is active in the adult industry. The actual number of active performers is closer to 1,500.

If that’s not sufficiently worrisome, Porn Wikileaks itself is far more than just an exercise in providing information: the entries about porn stars refer to them as “whores” and “hookers” and when Richard Abowitz got in touch with the person who allegedly created the site, the latter offered the following reason for the site’s creation:

To get the gays out of straight porn and illegal gay pimps that have ruined porn and shut it down making condoms mandatory by the government now. The fag loving has got to stop. California is full of gay Mexicans and now they can even marry which is so wrong.

The damage is immeasurable: to date, no test results have been posted but addresses and phone numbers have been, which means thousands of working performers now have to worry about their safety even in their own homes. Those who are not working — who perhaps never did — have to worry about how the information will affect their personal lives. AIM is seeking to press charges over the breach, but they too can expect to be on the receiving end of legal action.

UPDATE: On April 2, director and Taboo mag editor Ernest Green responded to criticism about AIM. You can read his comments here.