FOX4NOW - Dec 17 - Former Cape Coral mayor, Marni Sawicki launches a new dating site aimed to combat the issue of domestic violence by providing users with additional background information. "I absolutely believe the online dating sites should be doing more to protect their users," said Marni Sawicki. Sawicki and her business partner launched You're A Match, which allows survivors to anonymously post police reports, restraining orders, convictions and other verifiable documents. She says that of the 3M restraining orders reported each year, only 1M are uploaded to the FBI's crime database. The site aims to provide a safer dating experience and relies heavily on survivor engagement.
47 posts categorized "Outlets - Fox News"
Former Cape Coral Mayor Creates Dating Site to Combat Domestic Violence
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Vida Dating's Founder Defends His Business Model
FOX13 - Nov 28 - Scott Valdez, the founder and CEO of VIDA, a virtual dating assistant company. Dozens of remote consultants - from a stylist, to a photo analyst, to an app-swiper – work together to curate and manage users online dating profiles for them. They even have a ghostwriters, who flirts with their matches on their behalf. The end goal is to set up a date for their clients.
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IAC's Diller: Pushback Over Match Spinoff Will Iron Itself out
FOX BUSINESS - Oct 16 - IAC Chairman Barry Diller said that investor pushback over the spinoff of Match Group is inevitable but will ultimately get "solved." Last week IAC/InterActiveCorp announced plans to spin off all of its shares in Match to IAC stockholders. The company owns ~80% of Match. "Match is a cash flow machine. So we would not cause indebtedness at Match to be beyond any kind of rational threshold," he said.
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Barry Diller: Facebook Is No Match for Match.com
FOX BUSINESS - Oct 16 - Facebook is not the place to go for online dating, according to IAC and Expedia chairman and senior executive Barry Diller. He said that if a company focuses on one thing, it will tend to do it better than others who are "dabbling." "The truth is we have not yet seen competition from Facebook," Diller said. "It's our business. For them, it's a little side business."
by Catie Perry
See full article at Fox Business
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Match Group Subpoenaed by DOJ
FOX BUSINESS - Sep 27 - The FTC alleged Tinder, OKCupid, and Plenty of Fish relied on "fake accounts created by fraudsters" to entice new users between 2013 and the middle of 2018. Match also "exposed consumers to the risk of fraud by providing recent subscribers access to communications that Defendant knew were likely to have been sent by persons engaging in fraud." In Nov '18, the FTC offered to resolve its potential claims via a consent judgment mandating certain changes in the company's business practices, as well as a payment in the amount of $60 million. No resolution was reached. The FTC referred the matter to the DOJ. The DOJ opted not to pursue the civil case and referred it back to the FTC who then filed a lawsuit "making completely meritless allegations supported by consciously misleading figures."
by Jason Schott
See full article at Fox Business
Mark Brooks: Scammers are sometimes tough to identify. Their activity can lead to increases in conversions. Good for short term profits. Terrible in the long term for both impacted users and the dating brand. Once a scammer has been identified at a reasonable level of confidence, the best practice is to notify users that they've been in contact with a scammer and to block the scammers device and ideally communicate their device id to other dating apps so they can be proactive in quarantining that device from gaining access to users again. Seems to me the FTC is putting a solid heal down on anything that alludes to us not being anything less than super aggressive against scammers. Will legislation follow? The DOJ kicked this back, so perhaps not...quite yet. iovation, Scamalytics, Spectrum, Threatmetrix, Kount, 41st Parameter. There's a raft of scammer id tools available for dating apps. The best dating apps make good use of automated tools and review/abuse teams to maintain the highest possible quality of real communications from real people. It's a shocker that Match is embroiled in this offense from the FTC, but important that we all take the hint and get our best game on when it comes to kicking scammers asses. (Full disclosure, iovation, Kount and Scamalytics are prior clients of Courtland Brooks)
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Lumen, Dating App for 50+, Promises to Protect Its Users From Scams
FOX5 - Aug 3 - In the dating world, those over 50 are top target for scammers. That's why Lumen, the dating app for users 50+, is using AI to protect users, making sure people are who they say they are.
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Tinder Criticized for Not Enforcing Its 18+ Age Requirement
FOX NEWS - June 21 - Tinder, the most popular dating app in the world, has banned teens under the age of 18 but it's not stopping them from signing up.
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How an AI Can Be an Online Dating Coach and Help People Find Love
FOX5NY - May 21 - The online dating sector is turning to artificial intelligence. Match.com in the UK launched Lara, an AI dating coach available on Google Home smart speakers and some Android devices. Users ask Lara for a match and can then ask for suggestions on what to say to or do with the person they're matched with. Dating app companies are trying to figure out how to satisfy their users, which is why they are trying AI. AIMM, a voice-activated dating app, launched last year and is being tested in Denver with about a thousand users. AIMM sets up dates, preps users before the first date, gives them advice, and checks in with both people to see how it went. And it even recommends whether they should continue to date or move on to someone else. Experts believe this is the future.
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New Tool Shows How Facebook and Google Track You
FOX NEWS - Apr 29 - A new free toll, called vpnMentor, shows how Facebook, Google, Instagram and other apps track you, right down to your device's battery level and email you've sent. The majority of companies tracked users current location at all times when using the app. Major dating sites will share your data with affiliated dating sites, vpnMentor added, noting some also have access to your private messages to potential suitors. There are exceptions, though. Happn states that it does not keep track of users movements. "Instead, it only keeps track of when members are in close proximity and where they were when they crossed paths with another user," vpnMentor added.
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SeekingArrangement's Report: Universities With the Most Sugar Babies
FOX11 - Mar 12 - SeekingArrangement, the world's largest "sugar daddy" dating site, lists the "Fastest Growing Sugar Baby Schools." The company states that ~2.5M of the 20M members on the site are American college students. The report states that student loan debt in the US has quadrupled from 2004 to 2017. Additionally, the average yearly cost of tuition and fees at a public, four-year institution has more than doubled since 2001 to $9,510, according to the College Board.
Top 3 fastest growing sugar baby schools:
- Georgia State University (306 new sugar baby sign-ups in 2018, 1304 student members in 2018)
- University of Central Florida (296 new sugar baby sign-ups in 2018, 1068 student members in 2018)
- University of Alabama (270 new sugar baby sign-ups in 2018, 968 student members in 2018)
by Mary Stringini
See full article at Fox11
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Fun Fantasy Ritual Plans Dates for Couples
FOX10 - Jan 3 - In a marriage or dating relationship it's easy to lose the spark. When Martin Kupper and Dana Lam started dating, they decided that they would each plan a surprise date once a week. Dates as simple as a camp out-style movie night to as different as goat yoga and an acrobatics class. It's made a difference in their relationship, so they wanted to pass it on. They started Fun Fantasy Ritual that plans dates filled with mystery, surprise and adventure for other couples. Fun Fantasy Ritual plans two dates every month for each couple. Fun Family Ritual is now in the works. The service will plan family outings as well.
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Founder of Trump Dating App Says Politics Should 'Be an Icebreaker'
FOXNEWS - Nov 12 - Emily Moreno founded "Donald Daters," which helps singles connect with others who are like-minded in their support for President Trump. "People that go on Tinder and Bumble are told that if you're a Trump supporter, swipe left," Moreno said. Moreno said that there is a risk of "unhinged" liberals seeking to infiltrate the app and shame users for their Trump support. "You can have politics and love if you choose to, but with 'Donald Daters' ... you don't have to just talk politics. It should be an icebreaker," Moreno said.
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Homeland Security: Top Cyber Risks Are Mobile Apps & Users
FOX BUSINESS - Apr 24 - Most mobile app users trust that the apps they download from app stores are safe and secure. But that isn't the case, according to Douglas Maughan, who heads up the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology division. "Most mobile apps aren't vetted," he says. Percy Tucker, senior manager of systems engineering at RSA, showed us how exposed user data is when connected to a Wi-Fi network. Everything done on an app can be seen - if that app doesn't have proper security. "If a user is on their laptop and they are doing something under an unencrypted protocol we can actually visually reconstruct exactly what they are seeing."
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Bumble's New HQ And New Networking App
FOX35ORLANDO - Nov 4 - Dating app Bumble continues to grow and now has a new headquarters in Austin and a new networking app Bumble Bizz. Bumble Bizz follows the same concept as the dating portion of the app. Users swipe if they're interested in someone and if it's a women to man match the woman has to be the first to send a message. If users don't reach out to a match in 24 hours the match expires. After launching less than three years ago, Bumble now has ~21M users. They have teams in London, France, Germany and Australia. They're looking into Canada.
by Lauren Petrowski
The full article was originally published at Fox35 Orlando, but is no longer available.
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Seventeen Magazine Slammed For Article Promoting Online Dating
FOX NEWS - July 26 - Seventeen Magazine, which targets females ages 12 to19, published an article “17 dating blogger: would you do online dating?” Some critics were shocked that online dating was being promoted to such a young demographic, especially because the potential dangers of meeting mystery men or women online, and the fact that Match.com states users must be 18 years of age to register.
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