When you leave an online dating site what happens to your profile .. do they delete it or will your grandchildren die of embarrassment when they find out you like disco and roller blading?
The answer lies with each dating website, so it’s important you check this out before joining. The secret is to read the boring small print, not something the sites expect you to do .. so fool them and do it anyway, it can save you a lot of trouble in the future.
All dating sites should carry a Privacy Policy and this should tell you how your information will be used by the site .. if a site doesn’t have a privacy policy or doesn’t answer such questions then simply don’t join.
You can see my sites privacy policy here and the wording is:
What Happens to My Personal Information When I Leave?
There is a cancel membership button on your members home page, when you press this and confirm cancellation of your membership all of your information is removed from the website. We do not store your information or profile details, so once you cancel your membership it is as though you had never joined.
It’s as simple as that, I don’t need to sell peoples information or keep it so I can boast more members than I really have. However not all dating sites are the same.
I like to think we Brit’s haven’t caught the American ’sue anything that moves’ bug yet but we are heading that way and a recent article from Canada about the issue of your dating profiles long and scary shelf life makes for sobering reading.
Always make sure you know what you are signing up to for before joining an online dating service, don’t let the fancy logo’s and images of gorgeous people entice you to join before you have read the small print.
March 20th, 2009 at 7:08 am
Great tips!
Many people don’t realize this unless they look into the fine prints at the terms and conditions before signing up. This is one of the important things to look for..
August 14th, 2009 at 6:36 am
Wow! I’d never thought about that before, I just assumed that when you pressed ‘delete’ everything sort of disappeared. Of course things will be stored on databases, or on servers, and it can take some time before sites are indexed, so it makes sense that information can linger in the internet for a long time. I will always read the small print from now on. Thanks for sharing! Very interesting post!
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:18 am
This blog is very helpful providing us with the little details that we seem to overlook when we are signing in various dating sites. By following those tips, we can be safer when it comes to subscribing in dating sites. To add, always remember to also be careful with the people you meet in the Internet through dating sites. Make sure you check their past records.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Great tips! This will enable members and those who are just planning to join dating online sites to read carefully. This will save them from future embarrassment.