STD dating website fined $16.5m in privacy case

Jury found dating site acted with malice and violated consumer laws by sharing personal information on group's subsidiaries

An internet dating site for users with sexually transmitted diseases has been ordered to pay $16.5 million in damages in a privacy case.

The lawsuit alleged a number of users were misled about their privacy rights on PositiveSingles.com, which advertised itself as a confidential service connecting single adults with STDs.

The plaintiff in the case - known only as John Doe- argued PositiveSingles.com and parent company Successful Match mined and shared users' personal information, including photographs, and distributed them on its subsiary websites.

A California jury found the company had violated state consumer laws and found oppression, malice and fraud on the part of the websites, ordering it to pay $1.5 million of compensatory damages and $15 million in punitive damages.

Successful Match is a niche online dating service, which owns a number of websites including AIDSDate, Herpesinmouth, ChristianSafeHaven, MeetBlackPOZ and PositivelyKinky.