Date Check Lets You Check Out Your Date on Your Cellphone

There are some very amusing phone apps around but this one is a bit of a puzzle. The idea from Naveen Jain at Intelius is that the dating scene is getting more and more complex and difficult to navigate.  This app sits on your phone and when you meet someone you can check them out, hence its name ‘Date Check’.  So far it sounds like a really good idea because you just never know who you are meeting.

‘Date Check’ is available to download for free. Putting phone numbers or names into the system is supposed to give the information you might need to know about your prospective date. It tells you if he, or she, has a criminal background and anything else which might be relevant. First of all it tells you that it has information you need to know but doesn’t tell you what it is. After you pay the fee, it gives the information, which according to a number of users has been very inaccurate and almost libellous in some cases.

One fourteen year old put his own name into the app and discovered that he had a long criminal record and lived in a known drugs house. Another discovered that the date she had been going out with for a year had spent time in prison and was married, according to ‘Date Check,’ but none of the information was correct. His name is a very common one so there was lots of information connected to it. Is it funny to have a phone app spewing out lies about you?  I think not.

Yet, there are some who cannot speak highly enough of ‘Date Check’ and they say that if you use email address, house phone number and name, it is possible to get a fairly good guide to whoever you are meeting.  The problem is that when you meet someone for the first time they are not likely to give you those details. 

This is a scary idea because the system could say anything about anybody and cause really serious problems. It could end up being used for other purposes too and might seriously affect people’s live. I also wonder what happened to civil rights? How can it be okay for anyone, anytime to pick their phone and dial a profile on you? You might say that it doesn’t bother you because you have nothing to hide, but this Date Check system might say otherwise and who is the user going to believe?