How to Let Your Friends (Sort Of) Run Wild With Your Online Dating Profile
June 9, 2014— -- Friends can be trusted with secrets, borrowed possessions and favors, but how many people would be willing to hand over their online dating profile password and let a friend go wild?
Mitro Access, a service developed by a team of former Google employees, allows users to generate a unique link for specific friends, giving them free rein to edit your online dating profile -- but cutting them off from other more personal areas, such as messaging.
"I love to have other people help me look at [my profile] and star people but I'm of two different minds. Having other people message people for me seems too far, but it would be great to have someone make suggestions," Vijay Pandurangan, founder and CEO of Mitro, told ABC News. "Being able to enforce that [with Mitro] is really interesting."
Pandurangan gave ABC News access to a test OK Cupid profile via a unique link, where we were able to browse matches, play with profile settings and spruce up the answers to some of the site's quirky ice-breakers, like "The most private thing I'm willing to admit" and "On a typical Friday night I am..."
While the interface looked just like what Pandurangan sees when he logs into OK Cupid, we were unable to send any messages since we accessed it via the Mitro link, which also came with a one-week expiration date set by the sender.
The product also allows users to give access to their eBay, Wordpress and Twitter accounts, making it ideal for use when working with one-time clients or freelance employees, Pandurangan said.
Aside from getting dating profile tips from friends, Pandurangan said he recently used Mitro Access to virtually hire a personal assistant to list some of his items on eBay -- and didn't have to worry about handing over control of his credit card.
"A lot of people don’t use these services because they can't trust them to the data," he said. "They could bid on a car [from my account] and I'd have to buy it!"
The free service works by asking users to plug in their username and password for the websites and then generates a unique link to send to friends for access, which can be revoked any time at the user's discretion. Mitro also operates as a password manager for businesses, allowing administrators safe storage of passwords and the ability to revoke access to any individual with just one click.
"Our belief is that improving password security and the ability for individuals to share access to critical accounts is something that is really important," Pandurangan said.
Would you let a friend edit your online dating profile? Let us know in the comments.
