PENN OLSON – Dec 15 – Starting today, the Chinese dating website Baihe.com is requiring new users to register their real name upon signup, which will be verified by also inputting their national ID card number. It raises the prospect of privacy concerns and potential ID theft that might be off-putting to some people. But BaiHe – which means ‘Lily’ in English – will have presumably considered that this move might actually be reassuring to users who are looking to meet genuine candidates for marriage (which is the main purpose of the site, not ‘dating’ as such).
by Steven Millward
The full article was originally published at Penn Olson, but is no longer available.
I think the world is moving in this direction. Anonymity anon. Real people like to date real people, not scammers. This helps raise the level of integrity of their service.
I think the world is moving in this direction. Anonymity anon. Real people like to date real people, not scammers. This helps raise the level of integrity of their service.
While the article mentions that this raises privacy concerns, it’s difficult to justify such privacy concerns when one real person is looking to meet another real person. For years, people who use matchmaking services have had to verify who they are before they began the process, so why should “real” online dating be any different? Dating, by definition, brings real people together, but it seems that one of the biggest challenges the idating industry has had involves some people making that transition from the virtual world to the real world.
While the article mentions that this raises privacy concerns, it’s difficult to justify such privacy concerns when one real person is looking to meet another real person. For years, people who use matchmaking services have had to verify who they are before they began the process, so why should “real” online dating be any different? Dating, by definition, brings real people together, but it seems that one of the biggest challenges the idating industry has had involves some people making that transition from the virtual world to the real world.
Interesting until I read “verified by also inputting their national ID card number.” As if anyone in China is going to do that. I wouldn’t give a dating site my driver’s license or social security number, why would the Chinese?
Interesting until I read “verified by also inputting their national ID card number.” As if anyone in China is going to do that. I wouldn’t give a dating site my driver’s license or social security number, why would the Chinese?