HIPAA for Dating Sites: PositiveSingles.com Steps Forward With New Privacy Rule

LOS ANGELES, April 16, 2018 (Newswire.com) - Amid recent public reaction of Grindr’s data and privacy breach, PositiveSingles, the first STD dating site to declare their privacy protection solutions, has today announced that it is in total compliance with HIPAA-style privacy rule.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) aims to regulate health and insurance entities involved to follow certain privacy regulations for use and disclosure of patient and client private information. Because of Grindr's unfortunate leak of users' HIV status to third-party entities, the authorities have since encouraged all dating sites to take a leaf out of the HIPAA.

We actively regulate ourselves with an enhanced standard to avoid the potential risk. Thus, we developed the regulation for dating sites: the HIPAA-style privacy rule.

Suny, Product Manager of PositiveSingles

“In light of what has happened, we have taken an approach to the HIPAA to learn successful cases in other industries,” said Suny, Product Manager of PositiveSingles, “We actively regulate ourselves with an enhanced standard to avoid the potential risk. Thus, we developed the regulation for dating sites: the HIPAA-style privacy rule.”

As the leader of STD dating services, PositiveSingles has the most complicated user dating profile, including their STD status and most sensitive single people in its community. The herpes dating site has applied the following methods to comply with HIPAA-style privacy rule:

1.       PositiveSingles defined the PDI. The Private Dating Information (PDI) for dating sites corresponds to the Private Health Information (PHI) in HIPAA for the health insurance industry.

2.      Notification Protocol: For user's personal information on profile including photos, usernames and STD types, PS does not disclose or sell to third-party companies. PS informs member before using any info.

3.      Intellectual Property Right Protocol: For user's treatment stories, PositiveSingles does not disclose without their permission. PositiveSingles gets user's permission first if the site wants to put their success stories on the homepage.

4.      Communication Protocol: PositiveSingles does not share user's info to the STD test center if the user goes there by clicking the link on our site without user's permission.

“The PDI is the essence we protect,” said Suny, “HSV singles, as well as people with other STDs, care very much about their privacy. Our enforced privacy covers all categories of users' personal info. The site is ready for enhanced privacy protection standard.”

Source: PositiveSingles