Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone, but a new study is out that shows how much personal information is shared and sold between website and data aggregators. Especially interesting is what dating sites like OkCupid make available to vendors.
Stanford University computer scientist Jonathan Mayer has released a study concerning behavioral targeting and tracking people across the Internet.
As expected, he found that many companies are involved with monitoring every click and then selling and sharing that information to advertisers so they can target you specifically.
Click a local ad on HomeDepot.com and 13 companies get your name and email address. Type the wrong password into WSJ.com and seven companies get your email. Click the validation link in the signup email for a Reuters newsletter and 5 companies get your email.
Interact with classmates.com and 22 companies get your full name; Bleacher Report sends it to 15 companies.
OkCupid, a free online dating website, appears to sell user information to the data providers BlueKai and Lotame, including gender, age, ZIP code, relationship status, and drug use frequency. (emphasis ed.)
I’m all for trading privacy for convenience and tracking people and their actions across the Internet for things like e-commerce, but there is a fine line where tracking becomes an invasion of privacy. Websites and large data providers’ efforts are not widely regulated here in the US (as it is in EU). The ACLU is concerned, as you should be as well.
Besides tracking pot usage (what advertiser needs to know that?), OkCupid tracks pretty basic stuff. If you want to scare yourself, go look at Rapleaf or read how credit card companies are using your purchase history to target your ads.
Hi David,
I love this post, people do not understand how misleading the industry is. I would love to speak with you further about this topic. I work for Sparkology.com. A new online dating site that was founded because we were disgusted with the unethical behavior of the industry. Check out our site and would love to see if we could work together some how.
Best,
Nichole
I see, a dating site for elites. Small expensive market to go after but at least there isn’t too much competition.
You are going to sell you member’s information as well, I guarantee it. Crazy not to, just look at sites like A Small World. Not the optimum solution but starting a site for well off and educated people and not extracting every cent out of them at every turn. Just listen to your investors, they’ll tune you up about this at some point.
Otherwise where’s the money coming from, especially with the new Nerve.com rolling out, which is squarely your demographic.
Hey David,
Have you seen the OkCupid data available on Infochimps? It’s not individual user data but rather aggregated user data of selected questions. It costs $1,000 so it’s a little pricey but there are probably some interesting insights in there.
http://www.infochimps.com/datasets/personality-insights-okcupid-questions-and-answers-by-gender-age
The main point of attraction of an online dating site is the abundance of choice it offers. We can connect with many people who are like-minded and are searching for a partner. But why should the dating sites work like agents by selling the private individual information to other dating sites? If I need to put my profile on a particular dating site, I myself will do it, but only if I am interested.
What a site, do not bother! took my money, said it was declined by bank,even tho I had plenty in there,money was taken, as confirmed by statement,asked if I could fax this to them, to be told, account has been closed and profile deleted,only to find my profile up and being used next day SCAM!!!!!!!
Many dating sites don’t sell user data. You shouldn’t make it sound like all of them do it.
Chery, most sites absolutely do, one way or another. Its another revenue stream for them, why wouldn’t they?
I wouldn’t trust a dating site with personal information, more than I’d trust a complete stranger to hold onto your Ipad, while you go to the bathroom.
I take this as far as not revealing any personal information at all, including pictures, correct age, profession. It’s absolutely none of their business, yet you can be darn sure they will use that information at some point in the future. After all, you’ve agreed to any information you release, to become their property. Most of us won’t read that fine print, yet it’s there if you dig deep enough.
This is precisely the problem I have with websites such as facebook. I dislike sites like this with a passion regardless of it’s immense popularity. They have had security breeches in the past. The amount of personal information teens and 20 somethings reveal to the general public is astounding. Simply shows their lack of foresight and ignorance of technology. Whereas sites like twitter are generally safer and easier for the less technically inclined, to manage safety.
Data mining is a real and present danger. Do yourself a favor and just stop feeding the internet personal information. You have nobody to blame but yourself. I could say the same thing about text messages as well. Do you really think those are safe? Absolutely not, each and every message is passed through your service provider whom have full access to your data. The younger generation should really wise up and start using common sense.
Back on target, yes dating sites are as guilty as the rest, even more so due to lack of transparent privacy rights, or any at all.
So, the next time you go on a dating site, think twice about sending your picture, profession, date of birth and/or telephone numbers to the receiving party. You never really know, who’s on the other end. Could be an employee of the site itself. Or simply a data mining profile sending out tempting emails.