OPW INTERVIEW -- May 18 -- The Internet Alliance is watching your back. Emily Hackett is the
Executive Director. Here's more on what they do and how they protect
the interests of social networking and internet dating companies. - Mark Brooks
Tell me about the Internet Alliance? What's your mission?
The
IA monitors political and legislative activity in all 50 states and is
active in about half the Capitols each year, focusing on states where
Internet legislation and policies are being debated. The IA lobbies to
pass bills that make the Internet work better and defeat bills that
stifle or limit ecommerce. Our mission is to promote consumer
confidence and trust in the Internet so it can become the premier
marketing medium of this century.
Who are your leading members in the Online Dating and SNS industries?
IAC (InterActiveCorp) Barry Diller's group, which includes Match.com. AOL,
eHarmony, and Yahoo! We also represent a broad section of the industry
including Amazon, AT&T, Comcast, Experian, United Online, and
VeriSign.
Why do you believe that the online dating industry shouldn't be regulated?
A
well-educated consumer can maneuver the online and offline dating world
safely. There is a tremendous amount of information available online to
help consumers safely approach any dating service.
IA members
believe that online dating background check bills offer no real
protection to consumers, unfairly discriminate against online
businesses and take an ill-advised approach with regard to protecting
consumers who use the services. There has been no outcry from consumers
for background checks, nor failure of the market to respond to those
consumers who want them. These bills are discriminatory. Dating
services that do business via voicemail messages, newspaper personals
or faxes of user's profiles are all exempt. It doesn't make sense to
impose onerous regulation on online segments of this market while
exempting competing services that use other media.
What are you focusing on most now in terms of legislation that might affect the dating and SNS industries?
We have been focusing on a variety of bills that require background checks, background check disclaimers or verification of age.
Online Dating:
Many
states don't make their criminal records available in easily searchable
forms. Consequently, the only "real" option under these bills is to use
private vendors. Some of the bills would require that such a vendor
maintain a database whose information contains more than 170,000,000
criminal records. Coincidentally, this just so happens to be the exact
figure publicized by a large private vendor owned by ChoicePoint, Inc.
called RapSheets.com.
Criminal databases maintained by
private vendors may not be able to get accurate information from every
state. These databases may only contain felony convictions. This means
someone arrested for a domestic violence or sex related offense, but
had that arrest pled down to a misdemeanor, would make it through the
screening. Background checks could easily be circumvented. The
dangerous result of this gaping hole in the system is that a woman on
the other end of the computer will be led to believe that she is
communicating with a "safe" customer, because that felon appears to
have passed a "sex offender registrant search."
This is
special-interest legislation that will do little to protect consumers
using online dating services and is to the benefit of one company. By
pushing for background check disclaimers, True.com is asking the
Legislature to give them the edge they have failed to accomplish in the
marketplace. The New Jersey legislation doesn't require background
check disclaimers for advertisements, newspaper personals, telephonic
dating services, or in-person matchmaking services.
Social Networking:
The
IA's highest priority is keeping children safe online. The IA supports
bills that would require convicted sex offenders be subject to
continual supervision of all incoming and outgoing email as well as
periodic unannounced examinations of the person's computer by a parole
officer, law enforcement officer or assigned computer information
technology specialist. The IA supports funding police and prosecutors
who need additional tools like training to investigate, identify and
prosecute cyber criminals. The IA would support making it a felony for
any person 18 years of age or older who uses a computer to knowingly
solicit a minor.
Social Networking Task Force:
IA
members are participating in the Harvard Berkman Centers' Internet
Safety Task Force, developed as part of a recently announced Web safety
initiative from MySpace and the nation's attorneys general. The task
force is evaluating various Internet safety technologies, including
social networking age-verification tools, and will produce quarterly
reports on its findings next year.
True.com has persuaded state legislatures to sponsor bills that favor their practices. Where are we now with this legislation?
The
newly passed New Jersey law, which the IA opposed, requires Internet
dating services offering services to New Jersey members to provide a
safety awareness notice to customers and a notice disclosing whether
criminal background screenings on its members have been performed. It
was signed January 13, 2008 and became effective May 1, 2008.
An
Internet dating service that does not conduct criminal background
screenings of it members is required to provide notice of that fact in
one of three ways: electronic mail message, on the members profile or
on the service's website.
If an Internet dating service
conducts criminal background screenings, then the service shall
disclose whether it has a policy allowing a member who has been
identified as having a criminal conviction to have access to its
service to communicate with any New Jersey member; shall state that
criminal background screenings aren't foolproof; that they may give
members a false sense of security; that they aren't a perfect safety
solution; that criminals may circumvent even the most sophisticated
search technology; that not all criminal records are public in all
states and not all databases are up to date; that only publicly
available convictions are included in the screening; and that
screenings don't cover other types of convictions or arrests or any
convictions from foreign countries.
What can these industries do to protect themselves?
Educate
members on how to protect themselves online. Join the IA. The state
legislative process can be a nightmare. The IA team consists of
seasoned professionals who are excited by the challenge and the
prospect that our work will help make the Internet marketplace grow and
prosper.
PRESS RELEASE -- May 29 -- WhiteLabelDating.com has implemented
iovation's ReputationManagerTM, a device-based fraud management service
that helps reduce online fraud and abuse, across the company's
portfolio of over 500 sites. To date, iovation has helped
WhiteLabelDating.com successfully block over 1,200 fraudulent and
abusive attempts within its network. FULL ARTICLE @ AD HOC NEWS
