Florida has approved the safer dating bill. Opponents of the measure say True.com is just trying to get a marketing advantage over other companies who – if they don’t do background screenings – would have to say so prominently on their site under the bill (SB 1536). It was approved in the Senate Commerce Committee over the objection of those who said it offers a false sense of security.
This week’s clueless legislator award goes to Ronda Storms, Republican sponsor of SB 1536. Given it’s Florida, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised the bill passed here.
Supposedly Match is already in compliance with the bill but I can’t see the official 12-point type on the home page. Someone send me a screenshot, please.
What if all dating sites just added the disclaimer? Make it a non-issue. Then dating companies can get back addressing real business problems. I would love to see this. Put up the disclaimer for a week, see how that affects signups. If it signups go down, then let the bill slog it way across the country, one state at a time. If it doesn’t affect signups, leave it up.
What would The Safer Online Dating Alliance do then? So many dating sites are on the verge of offering identify verification and background checks, the current legislation is going to seem positively quaint in a few years.
The SODA website is as out of date as the Internet Alliance site. Skip a rubber chicken lobbyist dinner and upgrade your websites.
Speaking of legal troubles, Match and eHarmony are being sued by a company called GraphOn Corp, which is complaining that companies are infringing on their patents on a “unique method of maintaining an automated and network-accessible database.”
