Leading Internet and technology firms and trade associations expressed reservations over a proposed Florida bill that would impose government oversight on online dating, and would require criminal background checks or disclosures for users of online dating services.
NetCoalition serves as the public policy voice for innovative Internet companies on the key legislative and administrative proposals affecting the online world.
Markham Erickson, a spokesman for the NetCoalition:
As some the country’s most popular Internet and technology companies, we are incredibly committed to keeping our users safe, and that extends to online dating services. But if only 15 of 67 Florida counties provide felony information, and recent news reports indicate that national criminal databases similar to the one required by this legislation can have a roughly 40 percent error rate, all this bill will do is mislead and misinform Florida consumers.
Some of the non-dating site NetCoalition members who have signed on against legislation are America Online, CareerBuilder, eBay, Google, Microsoft, VeriSign, Yahoo!
I was surprised to see ProfileDoctor mentioned since I have never been approached by NetCoalition and I am not a member.
Press release
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Again, the press got it wrong. This bill would only require online dating sites to disclose whether they do criminal background checks or not. It will NOT force them to do criminal background checks. I wish reporters would check out their facts before publishing errors like this.
It would be nice to get back to talking about increasing conversion rates and improving the customer experience. The press will continue to be fed misinformation, what we should be speaking of is the fortress-like home pages on most dating sites. This is such an incredible waste of time for all involved, or dragged into this. Let people browse for free and put up a little warning sign and let’s move on. I wonder what size the alert should be? What font and color?
Can you imagine having to ask visitors what state they live in and conditionally exclude them from your site depending on their geographic region? Can you imagine tracking every dating and social networking site for compliance?
Amen, Dave!
PS, get bent, True.com
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