Sunday, September 1, 2019

Frum Singles furious after matchmaking site for Orthodox Jews makes profiles public

Matchmaker, matchmaker — don’t steal my dating profile!
Din: Personally, I think this "Shidduch Line" is a great idea for $100.00 a year you get as many shidduch resumes you want ...
I don't agree to what he did, which was to steal resumes and publish it without permission to the party ... but it's a great idea ..
since the traditional ways are obviously not working ..

A new service to help Orthodox Jews make love connections posted unauthorized profiles of hundreds of singles, exposing their private information to would-be suitors.
The matchmaking group, based in Far Rockaway and called ShidduchLine WhatsApp, even managed to get tax-exempt status from the IRS.
Shidduch is the Yiddish word for a match that leads to marriage.
“They certainly should not be allowed to conduct business under a charity status,” said Reena Bracha Platt, 27, a California transplant living in Israel who said her outdated profile was posted without her consent.
Platt is among those who took to Facebook to complain about the security breach, which was even reported to a religious court.

Orthodox singles seeking a partner often give their profiles — known as a shidduch resume — to friends or respected matchmakers who might have a prospect for them. The profiles are expected to be kept discreet and not shared with a wide audience.
“Not only is this affecting single people, (they) published married people’s old shidduch resumes,” Serena, a 27-year-old single woman from Israel, told The Post. “I’m in shock.”
She said her resume was uploaded without her permission.
Jenna McKenna, who is married and whose old dating resume was also made public, said several hundred people complained on her “Frum Girl Problems” Facebook group about the breach.
“They felt that the success of our dating system was taken advantage of,” she said. “They felt that they were not respected.”
Naftali Sternbuch started ShidduchLine in Brooklyn in 2018 with a stated purpose to “help the poor and needy in our community.”
“We help people find their match by providing a platform that provides all information for no fee, so they can fulfill their lives to the fullest extent,” state incorporation documents obtained by The Post say.
Yet the group charges $50 to join, or $100 a year for the “recommended” full membership.
Sternbuch blamed the data breach on matchmakers inadvertently uploading dating profiles from their personal databases and said they had now been deleted.
Sternbuch, who also uses the name Naftali Zuckerberg, refused to tell The Post anything about his background or even his age.
He would not provide a copy of the organization’s application to the IRS for tax-exempt status, as is required of such organizations, saying neither he nor his accountant had a copy.
And he could not answer how the organization’s charitable purpose was described to the IRS.
“I had an accountant that dealt with the IRS,” he said. “I don’t really know.”
An IRS spokesman said the agency is prohibited by law from commenting on such decisions.
Sternbuch insisted ShidduchLine was a legitimate organization.

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