Terms of Service

The governance model considers the use of terms of serivce as outlined by Van Dijck. Here is a look at the conditions that OKC has created for its users:

Important Sections in OKC Terms of Service
[1] Personal Safety Concerns
Recognizing that the site is used to meet potential suitors, the site notes that users must take caution before sharing personal information or meeting up with matches in person. The company does not perform any criminal background checks or have the technology in place to catch every catfish out there. By outlining this they give warning to users, and protect themselves from potential date failures or mishaps.

[2] Membership Information: basic outline of payment account options and renewal of memberships. Gives users the opportunity to benefit from extended services they wish to pay for and describes what that entails in terms of credit information, trail promotions and cancellation policies.

[3] Government Policies: this is common for all businesses to ensure that their business maintains their competitive advantage and distinguished organization. This includes information on copyright, patents, licensing. The company ensures that information on the pages cannot be copied without consequences, both by users and the company. It further outlines the process and steps one can take if they feel their information has been infringed or copied in some way.

[4] Profile and Conduct: similar to a lot of dating sites, conduct norms and profile appropriation is important to outline for the users. Users must, therefore, create a profile that matches their unique self. This is an attempt to eliminate the possibility of catfishing. As well, users must interact in a respectful and appropriate way with others users and within the site. If an active user is reported to be acting inappropriately they will be flagged and possibly removed from the site. This can include harmful language or behaviour, harassment, commercial use, and explicit content.

We can see the effectiveness of governance within a company especially OKC where users are constantly sharing personal information and interacting with other users in attempts to create unique relationships. Reading the ToS serve benefit to users as they can understand appropriate use of the website and understand what protective measure they should take to ensure their own safety. For a company, it allows them to protect and regulate themselves from user activity and ensure that the website is serving the purpose it was intended to do.
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Work Cited
OKCupid, (2016). Terms and conditions. Retrieved from https://www.okcupid.com/legal/terms
Van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A Critical history of social media. New York: Oxford, UP.