As Valentine's Day approaches, romance may be on many people’s minds. While some turn to social media or dating apps to find meaningful connections, experts warn of potential dangers.
WSHU’s Jeniece Roman spoke with cybersecurity expert Diana Burley, Ph.D, at the Brookings Institution about how to stay safe while dating online.
WSHU: How can people who are engaging online in these dating apps work in a way that is mindful of securing their personal data?
DB: Well, first, you want to be very careful about what you choose to share. I know that the purpose of the apps is to give information so that you can figure out if you're a match, but you really want to give as little information as possible. And you certainly don't want to give very private information, like exactly where you live. You can give the region, you know, or kind of general terms, but, but be careful when you set up your profile and then as you start to communicate with someone, you want to take your time just like you would in in a real life situation. As you get to know someone, you reveal more, but you want to be careful as to how much and how quickly you share your private information.
WSHU: Romance scams, first of all, what are they? And secondly, how can they be avoided?
DB: Yes, so a romance scam is exactly what it sounds like. It's taking advantage of someone who is today. It's through dating apps. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. It could be even in person, but it's an essence where you're pretending to be interested in someone so that you can get something from them. You know, you get to know each other, you get connected. And then you say, you know, I really would love to come see you, but I live in X country or X state, and if you could send me the money for a ticket, then I could come. Or, you know, I've just had this big financial hardship, and so, you know, if you could just help me out. So it's those kinds of things where they create a relationship for the purpose of getting something from you, information, access to money, or other valuable items. But that's what it's all about.
WSHU: When I think about online dating, the term that may come up is something like a catfish or someone who poses as somebody they are not in real life. But nowadays, there are things like deep fakes and AI. Are there any tips that people can rely on to sort of tell whether or not something is an AI profile?
DB: It's increasingly difficult, so I'm not going to say that, Oh yeah, just do this, this, and this, and you'll know for sure. But you know, there are still glitches in the AI products that you might be able to tell from the grammar or from the way that the photo looks. You can certainly do, and if you have some technical skills, do some reverse, you know, reverse lookups, or look at details like that. But this is even more reason why you want to be careful and not provide the kind of personal information that that could could risk, could increase your risk and vulnerability to someone who is trying to scam you
WSHU: If someone has experienced that their information was exposed, what resources are available to them?
DB: So, if you know that you were in a breach because the company has has sent you an email, usually, what the companies will do is is offer to sign you up for 12 months, 10, you know, six months, 18 months of of monitoring so that they can monitor your social security number, your credit card information, your name, online to make sure that if someone opens a new account under your name, like a new credit card account under your name, you would get notified about that, and then you can immediately take remedial action to change it.
WSHU: Is there any other advice that you'd give for people who are navigating the dating world online?
DB: You know, I don't want to sound like you shouldn't have fun and you shouldn't, you shouldn't, you know, enjoy the experience, because getting to know people is what life is all about. You just want to do it carefully. And you think about if you met someone in a bar, in a restaurant, at work or somewhere else, you would be careful in how you gave your information out. The first time you meet someone in person. You might take a friend with you, or make sure that people know where you're going and who you were supposed to meet, and you know, share your location with your friend or your sister or your you know, your your cousin, so that they can find you should something go wrong. So it's really about being smart, taking advantage of the wonderful things that technology allows us to do, but taking advantage of it in a smart way and in a way that protects yourself.
