Data privacy is never more concerning than when it comes to your personal life. Consumer trends continue to suggest that most people are completely unaware of and uninformed about how their personal information is being used, collected or shared.
The potential ramifications of this can be horrific, not just when the security breach happens, exposing sensitive details, but also the laborious and stressful clean-up.
Many people should set a goal of taking action to sort out their privacy and companies should respond with similar actions, not only to ensure personal data is secure but also to address the risks of fraud.
As to how safe the personal data of individuals is, one area that has more recently been flagged is with dating sites. With millions of individuals turning to dating sites to find relationships, the safety and protection of online daters has become crucial.
Dating sites impact a lot of people. For example, the world’s largest upscale dating website, Seeking.com, boasts a community of over 32 million members globally. Yet how secure are these sites and what levels of controls are in place?
For Seeking the measures are more secure than others. Justyn Hornor, Seeking’s Chief Product Officer reminds the relatively large consumer subpopulation, via Digital Journal, that: “Online daters must prioritize their personal safety and the security of their online data. Before you hop onto a dating website, vet the security precautions in place.”
This leads to a question set by Hornor: “Is the dating platform verifying identities? Is it drawing from data and concrete evidence to strengthen the security of the platform? Is the newest technology, such as artificial intelligence and bots, being tapped to monitor profiles and identify any potential concerns?”
Hornor adds that what else needs to be considered is: “Does the company block profiles that engage in unlawful activities? If the answer is no to any of these questions, find a better site.”
Discussing Seeking’s approach, Hornor says that the dating platform’s security team uses both artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art protection and security monitoring that operates around the clock to keep user information secure to ensure that there are no leaks or theft of data.
Hornor adds that the service has implemented a sophisticated dating bot detection software which helps with fraud detection. The protection of personal information is also key to the platform set-up.
For example, Hornor says, the company continuously monitors the community for fake and improper users to keep the user community safe. The enhanced verification process includes ensuring that users have their social media profiles and photos verified.
