Dating Miracle

How Secure Is A Free Online Dating Site

May 9, 2009

How Safe is Online Dating?

Is it dangerous to go out for a date with stranger from cyber space? As an older brother, I would never permit my little sister to meet up with random guy online. Recently, however, I start to wonder if it is really that dangerous for a lady to meet up a guy just because she met him the “unknown” cyber space as to a local bar? You see, the problem is not where one meet this person, but how much you know this person before start seeing him/her in person. And who is there to helpuser to identifythe bad apple crawling in online dating site? What are top Online dating sites doing to enhanceensure users’ privacy and security during that communicating stage?

eHarmony, one of the top players in the online dating business with 15 million registered members in US, is doing next to nothing when it comes down to security. It considered keeping user’s personal information as part of the security. The least an e-commerce site should do for its consumer . Oh, and eHarmony also takes credit for having “a page of safety tips” for online dating as part of their excellent security feature. What a joke!

PlentyOfFish.com, the largest free online dating service, is also not doing much to protect users’ security. Last time I checked, the only thing PlentyOfFish can say about their security is that they “employ many different security techniques to protect customers’ data”. Again, I don’t understand how companies can be so ridiculous calling basic customer function a security service.

On the bright side, more security feature does exist in online dating business. For instance, Match.com has a double-blind email system to hide users’ real email identity. It replaces one’s real email address with his/her username and “talkmatch” domain (ex: LakersGirl#3@talkMatch.com), so recipients do not know senders’ real email address. Match.com also has the capacity to hide the identity of members when they connected with each other using instant messenger, video clips and audio files. However, these cool features are usually limited to paid members for most pay sites. And more importantly, no dating service has dedicated on verifying the user’s background before allowing questionable users to roam freely in pretense.

All in all, security from major online dating site is still very much in lack. Despite a record growth in revenue, most free Online Dating sites are seeing huge decrease in number of users in the past 4 years. HintCafe, a free, fast growing online dating service, has put a powerful emphasis on users’ security and launched a major break through in its security feature. Currently, HintCafe implemented a secure phone service which allows user to call another user without revealing his or her phone number. Before most web dating sites start considering user’s security as top priority like HintCafe, people who are interested in participating online dating can only rely on themselves.

Find free tips in the topic of wedding planning checklist – welcome to your personal knowledge base.