Is Edating Bad if You Know the Person for a Long Time

Dangerous Liaisons: is everyone doing it online?

Principal Findings

• As many equally one-in-3 people are dating online
• People turn to online dating for a multifariousness of reasons – 48% do it for fun, while some expect for more meaningful relationships and one-in-ten are simply looking for sex (13%)
• People share information with others likewise easily when they are dating online, with a quarter (25%) admitting they share their full name publicly on their dating profile. I-in-ten have shared their dwelling house accost, and the same number have shared naked photos of themselves this style, exposing them to take chances
• Even though lying is one of the most hated aspects of online dating, 57% of online daters lie to each other, faking a range of attributes such as their names, marital status, location and appearance
• People are concerned for their safety when they date online, with some of the main concerns involving worries well-nigh IT security – for case, 63% are concerned about the device they use for online dating becoming infected and 61% are concerned almost their information being stolen or leaked from the dating app or service itself
• These concerns are well-founded – 55% have experienced some form of threat or problem while dating online. And, people that use online dating are twice as likely to experience an Information technology security incident than people that don't (41% vs 20%), primarily due to their increased level of online activity in full general
• Protection is also an issue for people that indulge in online dating. Just 27% of online daters use a security solution to protect their device and xvi% do nothing at all to protect themselves as they run across no hazard

Introduction

Digital technology, specially smart devices, accept transformed many aspects of our society, including how people meet each other and found relationships – romantic or otherwise.

Attitudes towards dating apps and services accept grown progressively more positive in contempo years. Testament to this fact, when Pew Research Centre first questioned Americans about online dating in 2005, but 44% said the activity is a proficient way to meet people, and the bulk idea it was a poor replacement for striking up relationships in the 'real' world. But the way we communicate, run across and express our honey has changed dramatically since then, and when Pew Research Heart repeated the study ten years later on, the number that considered online dating to be a good way of coming together people had grown to 59%.

How nosotros conduct our relationships is changing, and it's clear that technology has a key part to play in this change. People are now not only turning to their devices to piece of work, shop, and play, merely to manage their personal lives and relationships as well.

Online dating is becoming more popular. But with concerns rife following incidents such as the infamous Ashley Madison breach, and with the process inherently requiring users to share personal information, it's important to consider the potential dangers involved. Are online daters giving away likewise much about themselves? Are they, through online dating, exposing themselves and their devices to malicious people – or indeed malware – all too easily?

To empathise the topic better and to help users protect themselves when they are dating online, Kaspersky Lab has undertaken a study into people'south online dating habits. The following report summarises our findings.

Methodology

An online survey conducted by enquiry firm B2B International and Kaspersky Lab in August 2017 assessed the attitudes of 21,081 users aged over 16 years old from 32 countries.

This report outlines the responses of 6,458 online dating users from xxx of the countries surveyed (answers from respondents in People's republic of china and the UAE have been excluded) regarding their online activity, including the types of devices they apply, the kind of information they share, and whatsoever concerns they might have virtually online dating apps and services.

Data was weighted to exist globally representative and consistent, split every bit between men and women, and not all the results from the study have been included in this written report. To request farther data please contact Kaspersky Lab at prhq@kaspersky.com.

Look around. Someone near yous is dating online

Online dating provides users with the ideal place to see people that have similar likes, dislikes and character traits to them. It improves the chances of a user actually liking the person they're going to meet on a date (considering they can search for people that run across certain criteria), and, if you believe the online dating services themselves, an increasing number of people are besides at present finding lasting and meaningful relationships online. Considering all of this, possibly it'south no surprise our report found that as many equally 32% of Internet users are dating online.

So, if one-in-three people out there are doing information technology, who is the typical online dater?

Although such a big number of people are dating online, our study has found that if you decide to accept part, you are most likely to be in the company of users that meet the following criteria.

People that date online are most likely to exist:

• 33.viii years onetime on average
• Working full-time (63%)
• Slightly more than probable to be male than female person (39% of men engagement online vs 25% of women)
• Device-savvy – they have around five mobile devices compared to the usual 3 per household
• They are most likely to work as medium-level managers (20%) or be highly qualified specialists such as scientific workers, teachers and engineers (19%)

Many people that are on the online dating scene are young, as the 33.8 average age suggests, with 43% of 25-34 year olds using online dating services. This tech-savvy age group is likely embracing online dating equally a way to meet interesting new people while balancing busy professional lives.

Meanwhile, people that course themselves as the head of a visitor or business concern owners make up a surprisingly large i-in-ten (eleven%) of the online dating population. Interestingly, nosotros also establish that 31% of people that are married or living with a partner are using online dating.

Online daters are nearly probable to visit dating apps and services from Windows PCs and Android smartphones than whatever other blazon of device. And, 51% of online daters admit to using a device that they employ for piece of work to carry out their online dating activities, despite the fact that they may be putting confidential corporate data at risk by doing then.

A pocket-sized relationship?

So why are these people going online to starting time upwardly relationships with others? Certainly, online dating provides all the convenience of making it quick and easy to run across people. Plus, information technology's an activeness that's bachelor across multiple devices, at all times of day and night.

Our study asked people why they turn to online dating and while half (48%) said they mostly use online dating for fun, other reasons were also evident, with some saying they are looking for more meaningful relationships, and around ane-in-ten but looking for sex activity (13%).

These findings suggest that there is still a degree of pessimism around the success of online dating, with people being twice every bit likely to look for 'fun' online, than love (a partner). However, with so many people turning to online dating for such a variety of reasons, it's clear that the activity is literally allowing people to carry their relationships effectually with them wherever they get.

Gender differences likewise come into play. For example, men are much more likely than women to use online dating for sex (xviii% vs 5%), whereas men and women are equally equally probable to be looking for new friends.

What people become up to when they're dating online

While many unlike types of people go online to date – and they do it for multiple reasons, our written report also asked people almost what they go up to when they are dating online, in order to understand the potential security implications.

It's all in the profile

The contour is understandably a crucial office of online dating. It allows users to share snippets of their lives. It acts as a window, or a preview of a person, enticing others to achieve out to them or detect out more than.

Is the profile crucial to the success of online dating? Yes. Only is profile information secure? No. We institute that a worrying number of online dating users are, through their profiles, placing sensitive data virtually themselves into the public domain, which could potentially atomic number 82 them to damage if the information was to fall into the wrong easily.

For example, one-in-ten online dating users accept shared their total dwelling accost publicly on their profile, have shared details about their work/ trade secrets, or personal details about their family in this way.

Many share photos of themselves or their loved ones this way – xv% using online dating have shared photos of their family unit publicly past displaying them on their profile and 17% have shared photos of their friends. Even more than worryingly, one-in-ten (ix%) have even shared intimate photos of themselves publicly on their contour, literally exposing themselves to the danger of having their precious or sensitive images mistreated by total strangers.

Matching upwards to danger

People tend to share their data even more willingly with matches and information technology doesn't take long for online daters to be persuaded to part with personal information near themselves, such as their dwelling address or phone number.

People are more than likely to give upward information to those they have been 'matched' with in the online dating globe – xvi% give out personal details to matches, 15% tell matches embarrassing things about themselves and xiv% provide their matches with private or unclothed photos of themselves. All of this data, in the wrong hands, can exist used to rails online dating users and their families online and offline, to crack their accounts past guessing passwords, for blackmail, and more. What'south more than, this risky sharing happens faster than you lot might expect.

Giving out this information can mean that a relationship struck upwards online tin enter the real world very quickly – with people going from being strangers, to beingness able to access an online dater's home address or phoneline within a matter of minutes. That, of course, is not always a condom or a adept thing.

However, there is a disparity between men and women. When information technology comes to personal information, men are ready to share information almost themselves much faster than women are. Female person users are probable to share data after several months (25% vs xvi%), while men are significantly more likely to manus over their personal details after simply minutes or hours (sixteen% vs ix%).

Turn-offs

Despite the loftier proportion of people who use online dating services or apps, there are several factors that can put users off.

For example, one-in-ten users overall are worried nearly receiving malicious links or malware that infects their device and 9% are being put off by scammers that attempt to extort information or financial details from them. In both cases, entrepreneurs and self-employed online daters are the near worried about these threats, with 12% of this group worried nearly malware and xv% concerned virtually scammers.

Overall, nine% are also put off online dating past people who send overly private or unclothed images, and seven% are put off the activeness when the information they share on dating services is used past others to harm them in some way. But coming beyond fake information – such equally false photos (xix%), fake relationship expectations (12%) and quack human relationship statuses (11%) – was cited past respondents as the most common reason people are put off online dating services overall.

Faking it

People might turn to online dating for fun and to strike up new relationships, but ironically our study shows that a big number of people lie in the process, and this in itself is off-putting. 57% of online daters admitted they lie, almost of whom (67%) turned out to be married men.

Among those that admitted they lie during online dating, the most popular things to lie about include their names, marital status, location and appearance – such equally past showing faux photos. Still, those who 'fake it' are ironically the well-nigh likely to be put off online dating considering of the corporeality of false information they come up across. Perhaps they don't bask a sense of taste of their own medicine? Either way, people faking it is ane of the virtually hated aspects of online dating.

So, why are people lying online? Our study offers up many reasons including i-in-ten online daters (11%) using fake accounts as a way to protect themselves from damage. But other reasons vary from people trying to grab their partners cheating, to trying to make themselves look better, or simply lying for the fun of information technology.

Prophylactic commencement. People's concerns about dating online

With people lying for a variety of reasons online, safety, naturally, becomes something that nosotros should question. Yous wouldn't trust a stranger in the street who lies to you virtually themselves, so why should you permit them into your digital life, or give them access to sensitive information about yourself?

With online dating then prevalent, users are clearly giving strangers access to their lives, which could perhaps exist why those who appointment online have concerns about their online safety.

Nosotros institute that vulnerable people such every bit the unemployed, and unmarried women, tend to be most concerned about meeting 'people with bad intentions' through their online dating activities. Meanwhile, older age groups take slightly different concerns. 45-54 yr olds, for example, tend to be concerned about the possibility of not existence able to delete their information from online dating sites, and people aged 65+ are more concerned about fraud.

Overall though, some of the main concerns about dating online involve worries about information protection, with 61% of users being worried about their data being leaked from the dating service/app itself.

In addition, 63% are concerned virtually the device they use for online dating being infected by malware, demonstrating a heightened feeling of insecurity amongst the online dating community.

When information technology all goes wrong

Sometimes, people's concerns about online dating do become a reality. After all, online dating, but like dating in the real-world, doesn't e'er get to plan, and it tin can hurt when this happens.

Overall, 55% of people that engagement online have experienced some form of threat or problem – ranging from Information technology security incidents to meeting upwardly with people that didn't plow out to be who they claimed, or beingness rejected by potential matches.

The data suggests that men put themselves at risk more than women. Twice as many male online daters said their device has been infected with malware, spyware or ransomware and xiii% of men had been sent phishing emails that claimed to be from an online dating site, compared to just 7% of women.

In contrast, fifteen% of women said they had been involved in a chat that made them experience uncomfortable compared to just 10% of men.

When it comes to occupations, business owners (19%) were the most likely to have had their device infected with malware or ransomware, while entrepreneurs or cocky-employed daters were most likely to have met someone who was non who they said they were.

People that appointment online also tend to deport a higher proportion of other activities on the Internet, making them specially vulnerable to the dangers of the online globe – as well as to the 'usual' risks of dating or arranging to meet upwardly with people they don't know or trust. This is perhaps i of the reasons why people that employ online dating websites are therefore twice every bit likely to experience an IT security incident than people that don't (41% compared to 20%).

Looking in more than detail at the Information technology security incidents experienced by people that date online, there'south a wide range of things that can go wrong. For example, around 1-in-iii people that use online dating have had their device infected with malware or a virus compared to merely 12% who don't utilise online dating. In addition, around i-in-ten accept had their device hacked, have had their data infected, shared, or become the victim of financial fraud.

Always utilise protection

So why are people that appointment online, experiencing more It security issues than people that don't? One obvious reply already touched upon is the fact that people involved in online dating practice spend a lot of time online, and therefore might naturally come across more than dangers than people who don't. However, the study also shows that people are not protecting themselves properly when they are dating online.

Looking at the protection methods people put in place, but 36% use strong passwords to continue their information secure and but 27% use a security solution to aid, leaving the majority exposed to hazard. Worryingly, 16% do nil to protect themselves at all, because they do non come across the hazard.

Despite non doing much to help themselves, 55% say that strong security and privacy practices are important to them when they choose an online dating website, service, or app, and merely 12% do not know what security and privacy practices are. So, at that place is an awareness and certain level of concern about the dangers involved in online dating. This simply needs to interpret into action.

Conclusion: if you're going to exercise it, exercise it safely

Today, people are time-poor, and we rely on our digital devices to help us manage our schedules, our busy lives, and how we interact with others. Digital devices act every bit a window to the residue of the world, including our relationships.

This is even more than the example where online dating is concerned. This course of striking up new relationships is entirely dependent on our digital platforms or smart devices. People are, because of online dating, literally carrying their dates around with them in their pockets.

While this comes with a big corporeality of convenience, it also comes with its own risks. Like any form of dating, meeting upwards with strangers isn't ever obviously-sailing and this is besides the case online. Online dating, indeed, requires the exchange of a sure level of data which, if placed in the wrong easily, tin can be misused.

Needless to say, our report has establish that people that accept part in online dating, are likely to share sensitive information with people they don't know, or have only but met. What'due south more than, they share this information rapidly. They are also at heightened risk of experiencing an It security-related problem such as having their data leaked or exposed in some mode. Still, they practice little to protect themselves, with only one-in-three putting bones security measures in identify such as using strong passwords or restraining themselves to sharing limited data about themselves online.

The boundary between online dating and the real world tin can very easily exist blurred. Information most home addresses, one time shared, tin can very quickly result in strangers turning upwards on doorsteps, personal information and sensitive photos tin very easily turn into blackmail opportunities or put hacked accounts in the hands of cybercriminals.

Far from advising people to reduce their online dating activities, we only would like to advise online daters to do caution, but like they would in the concrete world. If you chose to date online, exist careful non to click on unknown links that could be malicious, and try to avoid using insecure Wi-Fi hotspots where data tin be intercepted by cybercriminals.

Furthermore, use protection in the form of a security solution and strong, hard-to-guess passwords, be savvy nearly how much data you give away and, chiefly, look after the information you lot care about the most. That's where Kaspersky Lab can aid.

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Source: https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/online-dating-report/