by Simon Maybin, Emily Maguire, Henry Clarke Price, John Walton & Punit Shah
See full article at BBC
See all posts on Badoo
See all posts on Tinder
See all posts on Momo
Category: Outlets – BBC
Rise In First-date Rape Claims Linked To Online Dating
BBC.COM – Feb 7 – The number of people reporting being raped on their first date with someone they met on a dating app has risen six-fold in five years, UK figures show. There were 184 rape allegations in the UK in 2014, up from 33 in 2009, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Ashley Madison Hack Victims Receive Blackmail Letters
BBC.COM – Dec 15 – Blackmailers are reportedly sending letters to Ashley Madison users, threatening to reveal their membership to friends and family unless they pay money. Security expert Graham Cluley advised anyone receiving such a letter to "ignore it" and share the letter with the authorities.
NHS Hooks Up With Dating App Tinder On Organ Donations
BBC.COM. – Dec 14 – The NHS has partnered with Tinder to raise awareness about organ donations. According to the latest NHS Blood and Transplant report, the number of people in the UK donating organs after death had fallen for the first time in more than a decade. NHS would like more young people join its campaign. Tinder has created celebrities profiles, including Olympic gold medallist Jade Jones MBE. The profiles will feature The Wait logo to draw attention to the importance of organ donations. Users who swipe right will match with these profiles and receive a message that says: "If only it was that easy for those in need of a life-saving organ to find a match."
China Is Working On ‘Social Credit’ System
BBC – Oct 26 – The Chinese government is building a "social credit" system that is meant to rate each citizen's trustworthiness. By 2020, everyone in China will be enrolled in a vast national database. That system isn't in place yet. For now, the government is watching how eight Chinese companies issue their own "social credit" scores under state-approved pilot projects. One of them is Sesame Credit, the financial wing of Alibaba. Baihe, has teamed up with Sesame to promote clients with good credit scores, giving them prominent spots on the site.
by Celia Hatton
See full article at BBC
Summarized by
UK Online Dating Site Users Lost ~£33M In Scam Last Year
BBC.COM – Oct 26 – Online dating fraudsters conned victims out of ~£33M in the last year, the UK's national fraud centre says. Action Fraud said 3,543 people reported falling victim to dating scams in 2014-15. It said dating sites "very rarely" vet members to prevent fraud.
Summarized by
Whitney Wolfe Explains Bumble App Concept
BBC NEWS – Oct 12 – Whitney Wolfe, a co-founder of dating app Tinder, says she wants her new company to disrupt the sector, and cut back on the amount of online harassment directed towards women. She says the restrictions in the app which block men from driving the conversations are pushing social change.The word feminism has been co-opted and contorted, she says, but "what it really means is equality between men and women". When women make the first move, she says, men are often flattered and behave much more politely. Bumble isn't the only female-friendly app. Siren, a dating platform made by women, allows women to control their visibility, so they can block their profile from other users.
by Regan Morris
See full article at BBC News
Niche Dating Sites Have Sprung Up To Meet Demand
BBC – Sep 16 - GlutenFreeSingles.com was launched in January 2013 by Marcella Romaya, who is also coeliac, and Sheri Grande. Monthly membership costs $23.99; ~57% of members are female and 43% are male, and it currently covers only the US and the UK. "For a niche site to be successful, it must be about quality over quantity," says Trish McDermott, a private dating coach who was on the Match.com start-up team in 1995. Frank Mastronuzzi co-founded OneGoodCrush in July this year out of frustration that larger sites were not catering to the needs of the LGBTQ community. To date, Mr Mastronuzzi has fundraised ~$550K and is in the process of raising an additional $10M. Another niche dating site is DateBritishGuys.com, for American women seeking men in the UK and vice versa. The site currently has 25K members.
by Barbara Balfour
See full article at BBC
See all posts on GlutenFreeSingles
See all posts on OneGoodCrush
Who Are Ashley Madison’s Hackers?
BBC – Aug 21 – Nobody knows who the hackers are, where they are located and why they attacked the site. They call themselves the Impact Team, and there is no evidence that they stole data elsewhere before this attack. Comments made by Noel Biderman, CEO of Avid Life Media, which owns Ashley Madison, suggested he knew the identity of at least one of the people involved. But no arrest has been made yet.
by Mark Ward
See full article at BBC
Online Dating Site Launched By Iranian Government
BBC NEWS – May 28 – With a high rate of divorce, authorities in Iran have launched a state-run online dating site. ~22% of marriages among Iranians end in divorce. The vast majority occur between couples under 30. The new site is called hamsan.tebyan.net and is run by the Islamic Development Organisation, an institution under the supervision of the Supreme Leader that promotes the Islamic lifestyle.
by Nassim Hatam
See full article at BBC