BOULDER - The popularity of online dating websites is unquestioned. What is in question, according to a new study, is exactly how safe some of those sites are.
The study was conducted by the University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business. As part of a class research project, it was discovered that 21 of 90 dating websites did not properly remove location data from photos uploaded by their users.
Many of the profile photos submitted by users were taken with cameras and cellphones containing Global Positioning System (GPS) chips. The photos contain metadata that can provide the GPS coordinates showing exactly where the photo was taken.
According to Associate Professor Kai Larsen, when this information is not removed by the dating website, it is very easy to access that information using commonly available tools.
"I think you go to these online sites with a sense of anonymity where you don't want people to know where you live right off the bat, and if it is this simple, you know within 10 seconds can pull this vital information about you, it can really create a safety risk," Colleen Gross, a student involved with the study, said.
Dating websites have the ability to scrub the metadata from photos and the study found that many do.
"While we were pleased to see such a high level of responsible behavior by online dating companies, an online predator would require no more than one website to act irresponsibly," Larsen said. "The fact that we found more than 20 websites that do not carefully maintain user privacy is cause for concern, in that individual users are left to maintain their own privacy by carefully confirming that any uploaded picture does not contain GPS coordinates."
The 21 websites found to not scrub metadata from user photos were contacted by the Leeds School of Business in advance of the release of the report. The school has been working with several of the sites to assist in the removal of the metadata.
"It was clear that some companies did not know about this issue," Larsen said. "The feedback ranged from appreciative to reluctantly removing the metadata to no response. Several of the companies initiated actions to resolve the problem including, SuccessfulMatch, CatholicSingles, DeafSinglesMeet and MeetingMillionaires.
Here is a full list of the 21 online dating websites discovered to have not removed metadata:
Agematch.com
Bikerkiss.com
Casualfriends.com
Catholiccupid.com
Catholicsingles.com
Churchfriends.com
Deafsinglesmeet.com
Interracialmatch.com
Jromances.com
Largeandlovely.com
Latinfriends.com
Ldate.com
Matemakers.com
Meetingmillionaires.com
Militaryfriends.com
Millionairematch.com
Seniorscircle.com
Sexsearch.com
Singleparentmatch.com
Sugardaddyforme.com
Passionsearch.com
A complete list of all of the websites examined in the study is available at http://leeds.colorado.edu/im/.
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)