Online Dating Insider » Safety

Fingerprints May Be Required to Import Foreign Brides

David Evans — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:17:57 +0000

In recent years, a certain percentage of scumbag men have taken it upon themselves to import women from foreign countries and then sell them out as prostitutes and do whatever god-awful things crazy people do when they can’t get a date here in the US and they have to basically buy and then kidnap some random country girl from god-knows-where.

And then there are the guys who just dig Brazilian, Russian and Asian women and have no problem flying around the world auditioning them and paying to bring them back to the US, leading, to happy marriages, children, stable and productive lives spent together.

Due to the former group of said scumbags, it appears that some Maryland lawmakers have decided that they know best how to protect international women but in reality appear to have lost their senses completely. Like the True.com-sponsored legal junket around the US to push their business model through legislation a few years ago, I fail to see how the current legislation will prove to be effective.

What follows was sent to me by Tristan Laurent at Onlinedatingrights.

Members of Online Dating Rights, Online Dating Rights sounded the alarm this January when the Maryland State Legislature introduced legislation to require Maryland residents to submit their fingerprints to a criminal repository before being allowed to contact others through a dating service if those others are foreigners. According to one of the bill’s lead sponsors, Republican Delegate Jeanne Haddaway-Riccio of Talbot, the bill is needed to protect women from domestic abuse. The bill would make it a criminal offense for a dating company to allow a Marylander to communicate with one of its customers before ensuring that the Maryland citizen deposited his fingerprints in the criminal repository. (A later amendment to the bill changed this to require that the dating company must collect the fingerprints.)

The bill passed the Maryland House of Delegates unanimously on February 7, 2010 and is now being considered by the full Senate after it was approved unanimously by the Economic Matters committee.

Meanwhile, due to public criticism that the bill targets only Maryland residents attempting to communicate with foreigners and thus provides no protection for American women, Delegate Jeanne Haddaway-Riccio is considering widening the scope of the bill. According to an email she sent to an opponent of the bill who testified against it at a Senate committee hearing, Ms. Haddaway indicated that the scope of the bill may be widened to include all dating services. (emphasis mine- ed.)

Online Dating Rights was formed after the passage of IMBRA in 2006, and it is an organization dedicated to informing the public about the dangers of dating regulation laws and to opposing IMBRA, the Maryland bill and other laws that violate the civil rights and First Amendment rights of American citizens. Its members include a wide variety of professionals who are very knowledgeable about these laws and about the dating-regulation industry that has been quietly laying plans for collaborating with state and federal lawmakers for more laws to restrict online dating.

Fox News commentator, author and media personality Marc Rudov has weighed in on the Maryland legislation. Alluding to the law enforcement philosophy that marijuana is a gateway drug, Rudov says that like IMBRA, the Maryland law is a gateway law, the first step of many by which the government and feminist groups will interfere with men’s dating and marriage rights.

- Tristan Laurent

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HerWay.com and Honestly Online Team Up To Make Dating Safer

David Evans — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:01:42 +0000

HerWay.com, a unique dating site that enables women to lead the matchmaking process, announced a partnership with Honesty Online today. At HerWay, women already control their dating experience, so they decided an additional layer of trust to make it safer and easier for women to meet the men on the site.
HerWay members can be vetted through Honesty Online’s secure verification process. If successfully passed, an Honesty Online Credential will be displayed on all verified profiles. This makes it easier to recognize HerWay members who have been authenticated.

To read the full press release visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/HerWay/Honesty_Online/prweb3648754.htm

Don’t forget, you can get a verified photo from Datingeadshots when you purchase an identity credential at Honesty Online.

I can’t use my existing HO credential at HerWay, I’m told this will be taken care of at some point.

I’ll say one thing about Herway, they know exactly how to send out a brief teaser that takes about 10 seconds to turn into a post. Nice.

You know what’s even better? When I went to read the press release after I had logged into HerWay, what I thought was a screenshot of the site was actually a live version of my profile. I actually updated my profile while reading the press release! Love it.

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DateCheck Giving Away $1,000 For Your Dream Date

David Evans — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:15:54 +0000

DateCheck, the super-sleuthing people-lookup service, is asking you to upload a video or an essay describing how you would spend $1,000 on a dream date. DateCheck has partnered with MatchMatrix to provide all entries with a relationship report.

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Online Dating Protection and STDâ€™s

David Evans — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:36:38 +0000

Todayâ€™s guest post is by Jennifer Anderson from YourStdHelp.com.

Online Dating Insider is primarily focused on the business of online dating, while at the same time we look forward to welcoming guest posts on more singles-specific topics in the future.

Dating online can be an exciting adventure. You never know who youâ€™re going to meet, what they do, and their personality. But just like getting fixed up by a friend or meeting that special someone out on the town there are some risks and safety measures that should be taken.

Weâ€™ve all heard about STDâ€™s, seen the commercials on TV, and well some of us have had firsthand experience. The truth is the risk of transmission is much higher than most people know. In a recent study by the CDC it found that one in four teenage girls ages 14 to 19 had an STD and most didnâ€™t even know it. And thatâ€™s just teenage girls, so letâ€™s go over some facts, figures, and safety measures.

Chlamydia and Gonorrhea are two of the most common STDâ€™s. They are both curable and do little damage if found early but can make men and women infertile if not treated promptly. Many times unfortunately there are no or very little symptoms of these diseases making it easy to pass from one partner to the next. The good news about these two STDâ€™s unlike some below is with proper condom usage you have almost a 100% of not catching the disease from an infected partner. So remember, always use condoms even with oral sex because the last thing you want is gonorrhea of the throat.

HPV is an extremely prevalent STD that has over a hundred strains. Over 20 million people in the US have HPV and itâ€™s estimated that over 6 million more will contract it this year alone. By the time people are done being sexually active about %50 of them will have contracted this STD. The problems are only ten strains cause any symptoms at all which are genital warts while the other strains can cause cervical, throat, and anal cancer and condoms arenâ€™t as effective as some would have you believe since it can be passed through exposed skin. Since the worst strains have no symptoms itâ€™s important, especially for women, to get checked out at least once a year if your sexually active or were sexually active in the past as HPV is known to hide for many years without signs or symptoms what so ever. More on HPV Symptoms.

Syphilis has been making a comeback in recent years and can be quite a debilitating disease if not caught early. When caught, syphilis causes a single sore where the infection entered the body that will go away on its own. After that there can be no symptoms for quite some time while the disease slowly gets worse and if not found can cause blindness and insanity. Condoms can be quite effective in stopping transmission and as always especially with new partners should always be used.

The herpes simplex virus can be a misunderstood STD with two major strains HSV-1 and HSV-2 causing blisters and redness on the mouth and genitals respectively. Studies have shown that 80% of the population currently is infected with HSV-1 and a little over 20% is infected with HSV-2. That means one in five people have genital herpes, another disease thatâ€™s on the rise because condoms arenâ€™t 100% effective in all cases. Many people are infected with this STD and donâ€™t know it because people think of it as only causing blisters which is not always the case. Many times it causes slight irritation, small cuts, or redness so people donâ€™t realize they have herpes until they spread it and it reacts differently to the other person.

So as you see dating online can be fun but safety measures should always be taken. Use a condom every time and if possible get tested beforehand. If money is an issue there are plenty of places to get tested for free or at a very low cost that you can find here at these free STD testing clinics. Be safe and happy dating.

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Intelius Date Check Sleaze Detector Delivers DEMO LOLs

David Evans — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:31:40 +0000

I ntelius this week received much laughter during it’s DEMO demo of DateCheck, an application which tells you instantly with a quick background check whether you need to make an excuse and back out of a date as soon as you can. I talked with Melissa Korb at Intelius earlier this year about the service, which was nowhere near as feature rich as it appears to be now. Looks like they were busy over the summer.

Intelius is a company with access to staggering amounts of your personal information. Thanks to them, your next date is going to be able to look up all your dirty secrets before you even meet.

This is a good thing in many ways, but I’m concerned about the quality of a date check originating from an email address of phone number. In this day and age of anonymous calling and throwaway email addresses, this is not the kind of source information I would call reliable. And what happens if they are wrong? Can you sue a background check company if they screw up? Where does the accountability lie? Data is constantly shifting, being bought and sold, moved across systems and databases, and bits tend to rot after a while. It all comes down to the Terms of Service.

The companies that are successful know, acknowledge and prepare for this. Unfortunately, many don’t do a good enough job at verifying data, and consumers have no idea what to think, let alone dating sites. Selecting background check providers has been very difficult for dating sites. Few understand the entire process, who has access to the good data, and many other factors which should be addressed when doing due diligence on providers. Most dating sites argue over the price instead, which, while important, is not the key issue when selecting a background check provider.

Intelius features are all branded and look to be available as a bundle or separately.

With features like Sleaze Detector, Compatibility, Net Worth, Interests and Living Situation you can be in the know on the go. “Look up before you hook up.”

Compatibility focuses on the personâ€™s astrological compatibility with you; â€œnet worth,â€ including the size of the personâ€™s home and how many bedrooms it has; â€œinterests,â€ and â€œliving situation,â€ like whether or not the person already has a spouse or is living with his or her parents.

You can tell if someone lied about their real name or age, or if they have a DUI on their record. If you want more than summary information, you have to pay to get a specific report.

Frankly, I am somewhat surprised at the reaction they received at DEMO given that there are many companies focused on the online dating industry who have offered background checks for several years, like BackgroundChecks (powers eHarmony ID verification) and HonestyOnline, albeit without the astrological compatibility.

I wonder who Intelius licensed the astrological compatibility data from and how useful it is? That’s actually a feature I find intriguing. Dating sites haven’t warmed up to astro-matching. Maybe consumers will get it from a bundled third-party service like Intelius instead.

Tech Crunch goes to town on Intelius in this March 2009 post talking about alleged scams and a torrent of bad publicity and Better Business Bureau Complaints. In a word, ouch. This is the kind of reputation wound that is going to require some explaining if Intelius expects to partner with dating sites.

Identity verification is one thing, a full-bore background check is another. Dating sites barely recognize the value of ID verification and none have embraced complete user-initiated background checks. I think dating sites are going to have a hard time with this.

Date Check is at it’s core a direct-to-consumer marketing play, which is expensive and the privacy issues are so thorny it makes my head spin, let alone the stigma of being checked – you never know if someone performs a Date Check on you.

I’m all for doing whatever is possible to keep singles safe online and hope the online dating industry will start offering more safety services. They’ve heard the pitch for years and nobody is integrating. When will the tide turn and dating sites will realize that consumers will buy services that make them safe and more efficient? What’s it going to take?

Vist Intelius Mobile for more information on Date Check. iPhone, Blackberry and Android applications are coming soon.

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CheckedProfile Provides Photo Verification for Singles

David Evans — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:20:56 +0000

A few weeks ago I wrote about the recent partnership between DatingHeadshots and Honesty Online, which enables anyone to buy a persistent portable identity credential and a headshot at the same time. The alliance also features other services such as profile writing. Expect to see other offers embedded in either site soon. This is all part of the Dating Vendor Alliance I have been working on for some time now. More on that in a few weeks when we will have a major announcement.

Today, CheckedProfile was featured in Tech Crunch. CheckedProfile is the latest company to attempt to bring authenticity to online dating.

The problem is that it doesn’t work. Putting pereived client bias on hold for a minute, once you see their system, it’s clear that CheckedProfile leaves the door wide open to spoofing since they don’t check your picture against a reference photo. I could have had my neighbor take the photos and pay with my credit card, rendering the whole service moot.

I’ve been advising BetterDatingBureau on their photo verification service. BetterDatingBureau uses an uploaded photo of your drivers license, which, while not as foolproof as the DatingHeadshots/HonestyOnline solution, at least makes use of a reference photo.

One issue I had with CheckedProfile was that the photo upload feature on the home page appears to be broken in Firefox on Mac, but worked fine in Safari.

I’m glad to see companies working hard to improve the online dating experience for singles. Some services are more useful than others, and the marketplace will tell us fairly soon which one is preferred by not only singles but the dating sites they frequent.

Update: I see that sites like Plentyoffish place their logo on images, effectively covering up the verification seal added to the bottom of the photo. That kind of defeats the whole purpose now, doesn’t it?

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Honesty Online Partners with DatingHeadshots

David Evans — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:27:41 +0000

DatingHeadshots and Honesty Online have announced a strategic partnership to provide daters with the tools they want to make online dating more fun and successful. Disclaimer, I work with both companies. Through this new partnership, DatingHeadshots and Honesty Online address two areas that have disappointed users — unreliable photos and inaccurate personal information.

DatingHeadshots, an industry leader in online dating photography, offers professional photo shoots that produce accurate, yet flattering photos to post on a dater’s profile. Honesty Online, a leader in online identity verification, provides a secure identity credential so daters can share verified personal information, such as a dater’s age.

Full press release.

This is a terrific partnership. I’ve been working hard to get complimentary companies to work together while pitching their services to online dating sites. Both startups and established dating sites need an a la carte menu of services to choose from. Right now the online dating business development process seems pretty broken and I hope to change that.

Dating sites often don’t have the technical resources to implement third-party technology solutions, but thankfully this new crop of partners have made integration and implementation much easier than say a generation ago.

Ric Fleisher of Honesty Online was on Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert Radio Show today talking about the company. I spent the 4th of July weekend hanging out with both companies, exciting things are coming, I’ll keep you posted.

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Menthol Makes Love Last Longer

David Evans — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:07:15 +0000

A brief public service announcement/product placement regarding the latest revolution in male protection. All you really need to know about the new Lifestyles condoms is that they feature a gel that contains both menthol and L-Arginine, which provide a “combination of exhilarating benefits for both partners.” Disclaimer: they are sending me a free box of extra-large regardless of if I blog this.

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Facebook’s New Privacy Settings

David Evans — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:13:17 +0000

Several commenters have stated that singles want to keep their dating profile separate from their Facebook profile. While there will always be a demand for separate dating sites (free and paid), I simply cannot see singles wanting to go to a site with a million people scattered around the world that they (might) be able to communicate with vs. 200 million people all on the same platform. I’m not saying this shift is going to happen overnight, only that it’s in the process of happening, right now.

We all saw the MatchMatrix Facebook app at iDate. It’s a dating site bolted on Facebook, and for the most part, it works.

The issue is that singles are not yet comfortable with Facebook as a dating platform. This may change over time. Nobody knows if it will work, but there are several companies betting that there will be a large enough singles network on Facebook to be comfortably supported by advertising.

Still not convinced? Inside Facebook has a good article about the new Facebook privacy settings.

In our detailed guide to managing your privacy on Facebook, you can see how the controls currently operate today. In general, you can best control the content people see by utilizing Friend Lists and the â€œcustomizeâ€ feature in the privacy console, which users access by choosing â€œprivacy settingsâ€ in the upper right corner of the homepage.

For example, if you created a Friend List comprised of work colleagues, you could prevent that entire group from seeing your Status Messages. By clicking on â€œcustomizeâ€ under the status messages category on the privacy settings page, you can give all your friends access to your status messages, except certain friends or a friend list you choose.

Facebook is creating privacy controls to enable members to share and hide their photos, activity stream and other content on a selective basis. These are the functionalities I’ve been alluding to when talking about Facebook as a dating site. With the new privacy features it won’t be long before I will have a semi-anonymous profile on Facebook where can say I’m single, align myself with various interests, brands and proclivities and be able to search for others as well as communicate with them.

There are many impediments to a full blown dating site within Facebook, but we’re just about there, functionality-wise. Now it’s all about educating singles, which is no easy task given the amount of money dating sites spend to reach new members. And lets not forget the stigma associated with online dating.

Agree or disagree, dating is getting more social.

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Another Woman Kidnapped on Craigslist

David Evans — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:55:54 +0000

Over the weekend a woman was kidnapped after a third date with a man she met on Craigslist. WTOP in Washington DC interviewed me about what singles can do to keep safe in today’s dating environment. Here’s the audio.

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