Are we about to see the end of privacy in online dating? There’s definitely a trend going on, and you’ll have to decide for yourself if you think it’s a good protective measure for online daters, or if it goes just a bit too far when it comes to revealing information about those who date online.

I’m talking about websites that provide additional information about people above and beyond what their online profile reveals. They basically fall into two categories. The first is that of “warning sites”. These include sites like Don’t Date Him Girl, WomanSavers and Date Raters. These sites essentially exist to “out” jerks and serial daters from those who’ve been scorned by them.

In some ways it’s a pretty good idea, but it’s certainly open to a lot of abuse and misinformation from people who probably got dumped because they were the ones who were nuts. Critics of these sites point out that the “accused” usually receives a devastating public defamation of character from a bitter spouse or lover without a shred of proof. In many cases, the person being accused is unaware of what is being written about them and does not have an opportunity to explain his or her side of the story, while the poster of the information can remain anonymous.

Once such information is “out there” in the World Wide Web, there’s usually little chance of removing it or correcting it, even if it is completely untrue. Nowadays, with the increasing practice of “Googling” to “find out” about a person, the information posted on such sites can have far reaching consequences for the recipient of the attack. For example, when he or she starts a new relationship (“Googling your date”), or even when they are searching for a new job (read about the increasing trend of “Bosses using Google” to find out about their employees).

The second type of site is more of a “rating” site. A good example of this type of site is Klout. Klout was not designed to rate people for dating purposes, but it could be used as such. Klout measures a person’s overall online influence based on Twitter, Facebook and several other variables. It looks at how likely, for example, content that you post on the web, such as your tweets and status updates are to be acted upon by other people. This type of rating system is much less subjective because it simply measures data, without taking into account the opinions of individuals.

So, what do you think? Are these sites a good idea or a bad one? Let me know this month. Meanwhile, I’ve got to come up with a memorable tweet to get my Klout score up.

taraRejectionCheating,DontDateHimGirl,Google,Rating Sites,WomanSaversAre we about to see the end of privacy in online dating? There's definitely a trend going on, and you'll have to decide for yourself if you think it's a good protective measure for online daters, or if it goes just a bit too far when it comes to...Advice and Tips for Online Dating