Robert Siciliano explains why Match.com is now screening users against the sex offender registry after a lawsuit, but warns the check creates false security since predators use fake names. He advises daters to protect personal info, meet in public, and watch for profile lies or aggressive behavior.
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Match.com now says it will begin checking its users against the National Sex Offender Registry. It took a class-action lawsuit by a woman who claims that she was assaulted by a man she met on the site in order to get this done. Joining us now from our Beacon Hill studio this morning is McAfee consultant and personal security expert Robert Siciliano. And Robert, as always, thanks for your time. Why wasn't a policy like this in place to begin with?
Well, really, the, um, Match doing this is really just in response to this lawsuit. And while they may do a sex offender check, it is at some degree a false sense of security. While it does help to vet out some that honestly post who they are on these sites, there's going to be plenty of people that are actually sex offenders that will just use an anonymous name.
This information seems to be readily available out there, Robert. They say it's going to take 60 or 90 days for them to get this in place. Why is it going to take so long?
I'm not really sure. They could probably do it right now, but just getting, you know, systems in place, having the right resources to get good data is, you know, is always an issue. It's really taken this amount of time to get the right amount of data in order, meaning that over the past 5 to 10 years with the internet, with social media, with everybody's email addresses being out there, and then taking that and meshing it with the sex offender registries, now they have a much better profile of who a sex offender is and what their online life is.
As you alluded to at the top there, nothing is foolproof. So should folks who use these sites be worried?
Ultimately, you are responsible for your own personal security. You can't trust that someone's gonna be honest that they are a sex offender, obviously. So you have to, you know, trust your intuition. Don't give out too much personal identifying information. Don't meet them, you know, in a bar. Meet them in a coffee shop. You wanna, you know, be in a well-populated area. Don't bring them right back to your house or You don't want to put yourself at risk. It's no different than meeting them at a bar or meeting them online. But we find that predators do merge to the internet because they believe there is some anonymity there.
Do they have any protections in place as much as they possibly can, given the nature it is the internet, you're putting information in? Are there protections in place already?
Well, not really, other than they're protecting your actual personal identifying information that you use to sign up with, that's in the background. As opposed to, you know, your screen name and everything else, which is pseudo-anonymous. Uh, there's protections there, but, you know, in the end, we really are on our own. And I can't stress this enough. Don't just trust that just because they vetted out who's a sex offender, who's not, that there aren't gonna be any on there. Uh, you really are on your own there.
What's the worst thing someone can do if they're going on Match.com or similar type of online dating websites?
Just, you know, putting all of your personal information out there. Just, you know, your name and address and phone. Even your mobile phone can be tracked back to who you are. You want to keep your own profile somewhat anonymous, and again, you know, not just, you know, giving away the farm and just automatically trusting people. We're a trusting society, a trusting species, and we're all civilized, but unfortunately there's a part of the population that unfortunately is uncivilized.
And based on your research and all the work you do in this field with everything online, I'm sure there are plenty of success stories out there as well.
Absolutely. I know plenty of people who have met in online dating services and are either engaged or married one of my really good friends. And it's perfectly fine. Millions of people are engaged in this medium, and it's a great place to communicate and to meet people. But just like in a bar, you have to be careful online as well.
Are there any keywords, tips, things that indicate to people, "All right, maybe I should be worried about this person's profile"?
Well, certainly if they're a little aggressive, if you catch them in any white lies— white lies turn into big lies— if they're incongruent regarding their height, their weight, their background, their looks. When you see them immediately, you know, after you see them, after, you know, communicating with them, if there's any incongruencies there, that should set off a red flag.
Yeah, if that picture that looks like a model and someone comes in and they're not so much a model, that's a white flag.
Yeah, and you gotta trust your gut, you know, inherently trust that gut. I mean, you've heard about it all your life, trust your intuition, it means something.
And as you pointed out earlier too, Robert, even though there's a lawsuit in this particular case, ultimately, if you meet someone online and then you talk with them, anything that happens after that, I'm not sure a website is really culpable, are they?
Well, that is true. I mean, again, you're on your own. I mean, Match is doing this in response to the publicity they're getting, to the lawsuits they're getting. They're putting layers in place, you know, to remove a certain degree of risk. But in the end, there's always going to be risk.
And as long as they do a little bit to help out, make it a little bit safer, that's always a good thing.
The worst thing they could do is nothing. Doing a sex offender check is going to keep some of the bad guys off. Some of the less tech-savvy bad guys will be off the site. Meaning that they won't realize they can just change their name and be anonymous and everything else. But you know, the guys that are more tech savvy, they're gonna game the system.
And a lot of those guys are getting more tech savvy, unfortunately, as they learn about the internet and everything that's out there for them. Robert Siciliano, as always, great job. We appreciate your input this morning, Robert.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Let's send it over to Elizabeth.
