True Hires ex-Bush Aide to Seek Safety Checks

PALM BEACH POST -- Apr 16 -- True has hired a well-connected lobbyist from Tampa — former Secretary of the Department of Management Services Cynthia Henderson — to push the background checks measure. True routinely rejects 5% of possible daters identified as felons. Rapsheets asserts that the checks are derived from 17 different public records sources but the DOC database hasn't been updated since August, and rapsheets.com searches only 16 of the state's 67 counties.  "These background checks are not perfected and could create a false sense of security," said Sen. David Aronberg, D-Greenacres, who voted against the bill.  The House sponsor, Kevin Ambler, said his measure (HB 1035) is an attempt to "bring our laws into the 21st century to protect consumer safety." Last month, a New Jersey man who had a profile on match.com was charged with murdering a co-worker, her sister and her 3-year-old daughter.  But Eichinger, the man accused of the killings, would have passed such a screening with flying colors, according to Kristin Kelly, match.com spokeswoman who said he had no arrest record until the charges and has not been convicted of a felony.  Other opponents appear to include two dozen Internet and technology companies, who last month sent the lawmakers a letter calling the legislation "an ill-advised approach" that also "discriminates against internet business models by applying only to dating services that operate primarily online." The unsigned letter was written on behalf of such internet giants as Microsoft, Google, eBay, Amazon.com and Yahoo!, as well as match.com. 

Mark Brooks: The legislation is listed at www.idate2005.com and calls for dating sites to disclose prominently if they don't do background checks, or offer them.  Fast forward 6 months.  True pushes this legislation through, background check companies knock themselves out to provide online dating companies with new levels of background checks services...and True loses it's differentiation.  Then what?  Your comments please...