It’s become abundantly clear that SpeedDate.com’s security policy needs a complete overhaul if it is to overcome the serious breach it experienced on February 3, 2009. For approximately thirty minutes, though it could have been longer, access to user accounts required only a user name and no password.

By simply typing in a user name and clicking on “log in”, user accounts were seriously compromised as anyone could have, and did, gain access to accounts that were not their own. And by doing so, they were able to access the user’s email, account information and other personal information including their contact list.

All we can say is “Wow!”. And not in a good way.

Any internet dating or social network site is built on the information that the members supply, and that information is given on the premise that the information is secure. In SpeedDate’s case that premise has been sorely tested.

This is not the first time that controversy and criticism has come raining down on the company. Just over a year ago the company faced censure from Facebook after SpeedDate bought several non dating related Facebook applications and converted the users of the apps to SpeedDate application users without permission. The result was a temporary ban from Facebook.

Here’s a company that not only buys members through what can only be described as underhanded methods, but now treats its database as some sort of all you can eat buffet. If I were a SpeedDate member, I’d yank my membership and look for a site that treats my personal information securely.

Tags: speed date, speeddate, speeddate security

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 2:19 pm and is filed under Dating Site Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.