
Dating safely – let’s be careful out there!
Are you looking for a special partner currently or wanting to meet lots of dates to find that special chemistry but want to do it safely and without taking risks? If so then the team at When the Music Stops can help with dating safely. We have now organised more than 6,000 successful dating events around the UK since our launch in 2003 and so have a lot of experience in the world of dating events that could be invaluable.
Recently the TV and media generally have exposed all sorts of problems with online dating, the BBC’s Panorama programme ‘Tainted Love’ led the way by exposing all sorts of issues with using online dating and we can understand that many people are now looking for an alternative as a consequence. The BBC highlighted the following:
- Miss selling practices by the leading online companies, who are targeting new joiners and those new to their sites, by feeding them dozens of fabricated profiles of very attractive people created by their own Head Office staff, to get them to sign up to expensive permanent memberships.
- Fake profiles created by the public running into millions in the UK alone.
- Online Dating fraud is now generating of £36 million per annum for fraudsters.
- But perhaps most worrying of all is that members highly confidential and private data, their profiles and photographs, are being bought and sold by the companies involved without the clients permission or knowledge. Which means that if you have submitted a profile to one dating site, you could be on hundreds.
Here is a link to the BBC’s Panorama Programme – courtesy of YouTube, click here to view it.
To make matters worse, the Information Commission, a Government Body and the custodians of the Data Protection Act in the UK, have now also written to the ‘Big 4’ Online Dating companies – eHarmony, Match.com, Global Personals and Cupid Plc, plus the Industry Body the A.B.I.A. – highlighting concerns and possible breaches of the Data Protection Act. The concerns are as follows:
1) Poor visability of the terms and conditions that give the website consent to use personal information in certain ways.
2) Those terms and conditions making reference to companies having ‘perpetual’ or ‘irrevocable’ licence to use members data.
3) Websites claiming to take no responsibility for the loss or damage to personal information.
4) Users being expected to provide personal information before the terms and conditions were provided.
A worrying scenario indeed for those using Online Dating and one in essence that means that the companies own and control your data and photographs for life, with you having no redress or control whatsoever.
So what about When the Music Stops and how different are we?
a) Well all of our events are very well organised and are always supervised by an experienced and highly trained facilitator.
b) We check our every one who books online and verify, their address, postal code and that they are who they say they are.
c) Our events are in busy locations where there is safety in numbers and you can check out your potential dates up front and in a supervised environment.
d) We are fully compliant with the Data Protection Act and secure data totally securely.
e) There is no ongoing membership required, you can attend an event and it is purely a one off – you are not tied in for a minimum period and there is no hefty joining fee either.
f) Along with our sister companies, Matchmakers Dating Ltd, Attractive Partners Ltd, Searchmate Ltd, Searchmate Platinum Ltd and Avenues Dating Ltd, Ultimate Attraction Ltd and Gay Relationships Ltd, we have access to one of the largest ‘offline’ databases in the country. People who have been checked out and thoroughly vetted in most instances, so you can date totally safely.
So please come and join us at one of our events very soon.
Dating safely – the Dating Agency Association instructions to member organisations.