'This open authentication scheme is used by Facebook, it's used by Google, it's used by Twitter. Graham Williams, a Vancouver-based technology expert, points to what is known as an ' open authentication protocol' - or OAuth - where people often unwittingly share personal information with third-party websites.

Authentication protocol can share information

Zoosk Victims is just one of the Facebook pages that feature dozens of complaints about the dating website and how it creates profiles. There are many similar complaints online from women who say they have no idea how a dating profile was created for them on Zoosk. 'All I could think of was - who's seen this? Has my husband seen this? Have his friends seen this? Has his family seen this? I was absolutely mortified.'Īnd Mari isn't the only one. 'My palms started sweating, my heart started racing, my stomach started doing flip-flops. denies creating dating profiles without permission. She worried her neighbours, friends and family would see the profile and wonder why a married woman would sign up for a dating site. She and her husband live in a small community 2½ hours northwest of Toronto. Sherkin says she was horrified to see the dating profile, which used her Facebook photo, her name and her postal code. 'So I opened it and found out - unbeknownst to me - Zoosk had created a dating profile for me.' Dating profile used Facebook photo I was absolutely unaware of what was going on. She says that within minutes, she started getting messages in her Facebook inbox from men. Having been married since 1988, I wasn't interested in a dating site, so I closed it.' 'However, what happened was it brought me to the Zoosk site, which turned out to be a dating site. Last January, Sherkin says she got a pop-up ad on Facebook from. All I could think of was - who's seen this? Has my husband seen this? Have his friends seen this? Has his family seen this? I was absolutely mortified. The men had found Sherkin's profile on, a popular dating website - a website she had never heard of and a profile she says she didn't create. Imagine her surprise when she started getting hundreds of emails from men who wanted to date her. At least that's what she thought - she's been married for more than 25 years. Mari Sherkin has been out of the dating game for a long time.

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