Communications Technology

The operator of Mt Hawthorn-based dating website Red Hot Pie has been ordered by the Federal Court to disclose to its users that it operated 1371 of its own profiles on the website.

The Federal Court found that Jetplace created fake profiles to send “flirts” and messages to users.

The court declared that Jetplace contravened the Trade Practices Act 1974 by engaging in misleading conduct and by representing that membership of the website had benefits that it did not have.

The court also declared that Jetplace directors Maxwell James McGuire and Mark Semaan were aware of the offending conduct.

Jetplace has been ordered to publish a corrective notice when each user of the website who registered between December 2004 and November 26, 2008 next logs on, and to send a copy of the notice to the email address of each user.

Users can also apply for refunds if they can demonstrate that they were misled by the conduct into paying for membership of the website.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Graeme Samuel said the website operators had a legal responsibility to ensure the information they placed on the website was accurate.

“Had this conduct occurred after the introduction of the new Australian Consumer Law, it is likely the ACCC would have sought from the court civil pecuniary penalties,” he said.

“Such penalties can be up to $1.1 million for companies and $220,000 for individuals.”

Mr McGuire said the 1371 profiles were created over a four-year period for the User Security Suite and only “a small number” of those profiles were active at any given time.

“This part of the Red Hot Pie User Security Suite was voluntarily deactivated in November 2008 following the identification of the ACCC’s concerns,” he said.

“This part of the site’s User Security Suite would have been of minimal inconvenience to bona fide members of the site, and most will not have been aware of its existence or its passing.”

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Technology and people power will take on the mobile speed cameras when they launch on July 19, with drivers embracing social networking to identify their locations.

More than 85,000 people have joined a Facebook group called “Drivers who flash their lights to warn you of coppers are true Australians”, but that pales in comparison to the 6.5 million iPhone users worldwide who have installed the Trapster application.

Trapster is free GPS-based software designed to warn subscribers of police, speed cameras or traffic issues. Users notify each other of police activity by reporting areas as they pass through them.

Ian Mills, a computer engineer from Gerroa , said he would be using the technology to warn others. “I travel 250 kilometres a day back and forth from home,” Mr Mills said.

Prospect resident Kunal Singh said drivers would keep an eye out for each other. “The new cameras can be anywhere, but with Trapster you can get notifications of them,” he said. “People are quite proactive in how they report speed traps.”

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Alternative payment methods enable developers to monetize significantly larger portions of their user base, according to a study released Wednesday.

Fifty-three percent of social gamers surveyed for the study, overseen by ComScore and Offerpal Media, said they are enthusiastic about alternative, or indirect, payment methods as a way to earn virtual currency for free, rather than having to pay for it directly.

These alternative forms of payment take many forms, including filling out a survey, watching a video, shopping at online retailers, or signing up for a subscription in order to get points for the games they play on leading social networks.

According to the survey, the top preferred marketing actions, in order of preference, are as such:

1. Completing a free survey
2. Watching a video
3. Completing tasks such as tagging a photo or proofreading a document
4. Shopping for clothes or other goods online
5. Subscribing to a magazine
6. Subscribing to a movie rental program

Offers and surveys have proven to be viable revenue sources for social games, but they are not without problems. Offerpal itself allegedly participated in a variety of programs that were little more than scams. And while scams are obviously bad, the theory behind the programs does make sense.

The statistics show that users want virtual points and goods for free (surprised?)

* 53.3 percent of the total respondents reported that they would be “very likely” to complete a marketing action.
* 22.8 percent of the respondents reported that they would be willing and are able to buy the points using cash payment methods such as credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, or mobile billing.
* 29.7 percent of social gamers do not have the ability or the means to pay for virtual currency with cash options.
* 34.9 percent say they are “very unlikely” to part with their money in order to purchase points.

As social media matures, and more forms of monetization start to come to light, there is little doubt that we’ll see new forms of offers, both legitimate and questionable. What remains to be seen is how revenue goals can be consistently targeted and achieved.

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