General News

You hear a lot about privacy when it comes to online dating. When all of your potential mates are hidden behind anonymous profiles and screennames, it's an understandably big issue...but most of the discussion is focused on a very specific topic: how to keep yourself safe from other unscrupulous daters.

These days, privacy is a major concern everywhere, from the new Google privacy policy to the continually changing privacy policy on Facebook. And that begs the question: what about the dating sites themselves? Is your personal information safe? Is your private life really private when you're dating online?

Tana Ganeva explored that question in a recent AlterNet article called Is Your Sex Life Really Private? The Truth About Online Dating Sites. "Dating sites amass huge amounts of private data about their users," she writes, and "according to a new report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, they do a really bad job of keeping it private." That means that your personal info - like sexual orientation and relationship history - could be obtained by a wide range of interested parties, from future employers, to advertising companies, to, of course, hackers.

It all begins with security, which many dating sites lack. A relatively inexperienced hacker could gain access to someone's profile without much difficulty - it's as easy as being on the same open network as someone logged into their online dating account. "Given the lack of security on most dating sites, it would be a trivial matter for someone with mediocre skill to spy on your activity or take over your entire account if you log on to many dating sites using shared wifi account, like when you are in a hotel, coffee shop, or library," Rainey Reitman, the activism director at EFF, told AlterNet.

The secure HTTPS encryption that's used in many other fields - online banking, for example - is woefully underused in the world of online dating. Many dating sites don't use it as their default setting and some, like OkCupid, don't use it at all.

Unfortunately, this is not a "What if?" used to scare daters into protecting their private information more strongly. Breaches in security have already happened, like an incident that occurred in January when a hacker broke into the mobile app Grindr and posted personal information to a Web site. The site has since been taken down, but the message was sent loud and clear: when it comes to online dating, privacy and safety concerns aren't just about other daters. They're also about the dating site itself.

Related Article: Is Your Private Life Really Private When You're Dating Online? (Part II)

These days Facebook is getting a lot of criticism about their privacy policy, and while I have to agree that the amount of data Facebook collects on its users is staggering and more than a little scary, at least they're now putting it to good use. Enter Facebook Data, a team that "builds scalable platforms for the collection, management, and analysis of data."

Facebook Data recently released a report called "The Right Time for Love: Tracking The Seasonality of Relationship Formation." Using U.S. Facebook data from 2010 and 2011, the team looked at how different times of year affect the beginnings and endings of relationships. They started by examining changes from non-coupled relationship statuses (like "Single" or "Divorced") to coupled statuses (like "In a relationship" or "Engaged"), then compared that figure against the number of changes in the opposite direction.

They found that Christmas and Valentine's Day are both good days to try your luck in love. Far more people paired up on those days than split up:

• Feb. 14: 49% more new relationships than break-ups
• Dec. 25: 34% more
• Dec. 24: 28% more
• Feb. 15: 22% more

Another big day for relationships shows that most Facebook users can take a joke, even when it comes to their relationships: April Fool's Day. As the fifth biggest day for a net increase in relationships, April 1st saw 20% more relationship initiations than splits. Many were clearly just in the spirit of the silly holiday, however, as the following day was the most extreme day in the other direction. April 2nd saw 11% more break-ups than new relationships.

Looking at the data on a monthly basis, summertime seemed to be the most problematic for relationships. In 2010 and 2011, May through August saw a low point in the daily net change in relationships across Facebook users of all age groups.

The Facebook Data team also found patterns at a weekly level. They discovered a net gain in relationships after the weekend - Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were the biggest days for the announcements of new romances to hit the social networking site. In contrast, breakups were more likely to be reported in the days leading up to the weekend, reaching a peak on Friday and Saturday.

In speculating on why these patterns exist, the Facebook Data team believes that "One explanation could be that people looking for a change tend to end their old relationships in time to spend the weekend with friends or get back in the game with someone new." Another theory is that "breaking up is hard to do, and having a difficult conversation has to wait until the work week winds down." To explain the net gain in relationships at the beginning of the week, the team posits that it "may be a visible echo of the weekend's festivities -- and the new social ties that result."

For information on how to use this social network to find people to date, you can read our Facebook review.

Legislation (HB4083) designed to make online dating safer for users in Illinois passed the Illinois House late last week with a vote of 83 to 26.

This legislation requires all online dating sites operating in Illinois to provide a disclaimer on their websites stating whether or not they conduct background checks on their members. This bill is very similar to the ones passed by New York state 2 years ago and by New Jersey about 4 years ago.

A number of dating sites already have such warnings on their services visible by all members. The problem with this bill is that it implies that if a background check is done then you are safe. Background checks can be helpful but they do have several limitations. One is that they rely on information given by the person. If a scammer is on a dating site, it is unlikely that he will use his real information. Another problem is that there is no one database of records and reports on criminals. There are local, state and national databases that each record information in their own way and may not even be accessible by background checks run by companies.

For a more complete explanation of what Background Checks offer you can read our Background Checks category description. For more on the story you can read STL Today.

What wins out on online dating sites: job status or social status?

Where are all the sensitive men hiding?

Those are the questions answered by two new dating studies, conducted by Lovestruck.com and Chemistry.com.

Lovestruck.com's new profile verification service, called "Lovestruck Verified," has revealed a significant difference between genders in what matters to members when authenticating their dating profile. Lovestruck Verified helps combat online dating fraud by cross-checking users' profiles against the 'Big 3' social IDs: LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Lovestruck found a clear preference between genders for which types of verification were used. Male members are 36% more likely than women to verify their profiles, including their job titles, via their their LinkedIn accounts. Women, on the other hand, are 39% more likely than men to cross-check their photos, age, and relationship status against their Facebook accounts. Twitter is the least popular of the three options and shows no difference between the sexes. What does all that mean? It seems that men are more interested in verifying their job status, while women prefer to authenticate their social status.

In other online dating research, Chemistry.com ranked America's Top Ten Cities to Find a Sensitive Man in January, hoping to help single gals find a special someone around Valentine's Day. They found that the highest concentrations of sensitive men are located along the east coast, from Florida to New York, with three popular vacation destinations taking the top three spots: Pompano Beach in Florida, Roanoke in Virginia, and West Hollywood in California. Ann Arbor, Michigan, known for being a college sports town, ranked as the least likely place to find a sensitive man.

Dr. Helen Fisher, Chief Scientific Advisor to Chemistry.com, weighed in on the findings: Sensitive men, known as Builders, are traditional. They deeply value loyalty, duty, respectability and proper moral conduct. They want to do the "right" thing. Builders go way out of their way to keep their social relationships running smoothly. So they watch, listen, and gauge what they need to do to help others and they do it naturally. It's these chivalrous qualities that make a sensitive man."

Rounding out the top ten are:

1. Nashville, Tennessee
2. Buffalo, New York
3. Sarasota, Florida
4. Greenville, South Carolina
5. Wilmington, North Carolina
6. Indianapolis, Indiana
7. Staten Island, New York

For more information on one of the dating sites mentioned in this article, please read our review of Chemistry.com

As an English major, I'm always excited when I come across a new word. Today's new word is "gamification," an odd-sounding term that's apparently the future of Zoosk.

Zoosk shot to the top of the list of the most successful dating services on the Web since its inception 5 years ago, and the company's latest attempt to stay on top of the game is "gamification": "the use of game-like incentives such as achievements in non-gaming apps." GamesBeat recently interviewed Shayan Zadeh, CEO of Zoosk, to learn more about the new gamification feature.

"Leveraging our virtual currency system," said Zadeh, "we are able to build incentives into the product that help guide users towards deeper engagement and other behaviors we find useful." In other words, the more active you are on Zoosk, the more rewards you receive. Engaged users receive more profile views, more messages, and more friend requests, all of which add up to increased popularity (and who doesn't want to be popular?).

Zoosk's aim is to stay ahead of the competition by giving members more ways to promote their profiles. Zoosk users receive feedback on how they compare to other users, letting them know what counts towards their ranking and giving them a "badge" for their popularity. Users can also purchase advertising on the site using virtual currency, a fairly unique feature among online dating sites.

Zadeh says that implementing gamification features has gotten "more out of the system both for the users and for the business." "Providing a positive feedback loop on "good engagement" to our users has not only given them more incentive to engage with the product," he continued, "but also has been driving the members to send more thoughtful messages."

When asked about what has made Zoosk so successful, Zadeh gave credit to the interactive social networking feel of the site. In contrast to other dating sites, which have static profiles that function more as "bulletin boards," Zoosk members "build a special purpose social graph on the site which consists of people they would be interested in dating." Over time the graph evolves, allowing for "a more natural progression of relationships from the initial wink to actually going on a date."

Zadeh also believes that the young demographic that uses the site has made Zoosk an online dating success story. The vast majority of Match users are over 35, though most of the single population is younger than 35. Zoosk, on the other hand, makes online dating accessible to a younger generation - in fact, 70 percent of their member base is younger than 35 years old.

Up next for Zoosk are new features "that will allow people in a relationship to continue using Zoosk by building a digital home for their relationship." Zoosk hopes to continue to provide support for couples who met on the site, found love, and have entered committed relationships.

To find out more information about this dating site, you can read our Zoosk.com review.

For all of you single Windows Phone 7 users out there, Match.com recently released a dating app for your phone. Match.com is one of the few dating sites that I know of who offers an app for your phone which is good news since they are one of the most popular dating service.

Like Match's other dating apps, the Windows Phone one is free to download and offers most features of their website. You can create a profile, search for members and view members profiles and pictures. If you have a Match.com subscription, you will also be able to communicate with members as well. The Windows Phone app is currently available in Canada and the United States only.

Match.com also offers a mobile version of their website along with dating apps for the following phones: iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Palm. By my count Match.com supports the most number of phone operating systems (5 in total).

For more information on this dating service you can read our Match.com review.