Allows social referral services to retain records of banned members for up to six years from expiration of the purchase contract or services rendered; requires online dating services to disclose certain information to New York members who previously interacted with banned members subject to a fraud ban.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8713
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
June 2, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. P. CARROLL -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection
AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to banned members
of social referral services
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (d) of subdivision 1, subdivision 6, and the
2 opening paragraph of paragraph (a) of subdivision 10 of section 394-c of
3 the general business law, as amended by chapter 13 of the laws of 2025,
4 are amended to read as follows:
5 (d) "banned member" shall mean the member whose account or profile is
6 the subject of a fraud ban or has been terminated by an online dating
7 service for a violation of the terms of service.
8 6. Every contract for social referral service shall provide that at
9 the expiration of the contract or at the expiration of services rendered
10 by the seller, for any reason, all information and material of a
11 personal or private nature acquired from a purchaser directly or indi-
12 rectly including but not limited to answers to tests and questionnaires,
13 photographs or background information shall be promptly returned by the
14 seller to the purchaser by certified mail or destroyed and deleted from
15 any electronic storage devices, with certification of destruction or
16 deletion promptly provided to the purchaser upon request, unless the
17 retention of such information and material is required (a) by federal,
18 state, or local laws, rules or regulations or (b) to comply with a judi-
19 cial court order. Notwithstanding the provisions of this subdivision,
20 the social referral service may retain such information and material for
21 a period of six years from the expiration of the contract or at the
22 expiration of services rendered where the purchaser is a banned member
23 or the purchaser is in possession of information or material containing
24 evidence of the banned member's violation of the terms of service or
25 fraud ban. Such information and material shall be retained solely for
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13219-01-5
A. 8713 2
1 the purpose of enforcing the fraud ban or termination of the account or
2 profile and to preserve information or material that may become relevant
3 to a law enforcement request, criminal or civil litigation, or judicial
4 court order, or which is necessary to comply with federal, state, or
5 local laws.
6 An online dating service shall disclose to all of its New York members
7 known to have previously received and responded to an on-site message
8 from a banned member subject to a fraud ban:
9 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
