As we look at how to best protect singles, has anyone stopped to question the business model of Match.com, JDate and eHarmony, which requires members to be 100% anonymous?  Their sites are devoid of all the social checks and balances that help singles make good dating decisions in the real world, and  fosters dishonesty, exaggeration and occasional criminal behaviors.  While the rest of the Internet has opened up to a social experience with real identities, all the leading dating sites have shored up their second-skin, anonymous communities so they can continue to control the information singles get about each other—ultimately allowing their pay-to-communicate model to thrive.

We just launched http://www.theComplete.me, a social dating network that allows singles to maintain their anonymity while also choosing how and when to share their real identity as they curate a dating profile from the images, friends and interests they already share on 8 social networks (including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads, etc.).  We have introduced user-defined anonymity to online dating and our aim is to fundamentally change the dating industry and the business model.

We do not require anonymity like other dating sites today, instead we trust our members and empower them with privacy controls and a .Me Score to measure the authenticity of information provided.  Members always control the privacy of their information, and decide what they want to share, when and with whom.  People using the site can see the other dating sites our members are using, but talk to them at no cost, on theComplete.me.  Because we have access to real social identities, we also screen out married people and stop them from joining our service.

For some, real identities may feel a little “funny” at first, if you’ve been used to dating on closed, anonymous sites like eHarmony or Match.com, but the Internet has changed a lot since online dating was introduced in 1995, and user-defined anonymity is one of its better changes.

Can you imagine an anonymous Facebook, Linkedin or Google+—oh wait, that was called MySpace and we all know what happened there.

Remember there can always be more love in the world.

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