According to a statement from the company, MySpace will provide the Multi-State Attorney General Executive Committee with data from Sentinel Safe, the database of information on registered sex offenders that the company has compiled through its partnership with identity verification firm Sentinel Tech Holding. Sentinel Safe, which contains data aggregated from state registries, has been in the works since late last year and was officially deployed May 2.
The key behind the new plan, according to MySpace representatives, is efficiency. "There were more than 50 disparate sex offender registries and no way of tying them together and checking them against our user database," Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in an interview. So far, the software has flagged and deleted about 7,000 registered sex offenders from MySpace's user base of around 180 million profiles, according to Michael Angus, general counsel for MySpace parent company Fox Interactive Media, a subsidiary of News Corp.
"Up until now, the predators have felt like they can have a free ride (on social-networking sites), and that day is over," Angus said.
MySpace initially asserted that it was legally unable to comply with the requests set forth in a letter sent earlier this month from the attorneys general of eight states--Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The letter asking that the social-networking site provide the data, cited concerns "that sexual predators are using MySpace to lure children into face-to-face encounters and other dangerous activities."
But MySpace responded that it couldn't turn the information over due to the terms of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which technically prohibits such information from being shared without a subpoena, as well as some state privacy laws.
It appears, however, that an accord was struck late last week. Through MySpace's newly announced partnership with the attorneys general, Angus and Nigam said, the company will be able to address the federal and state laws. Company representatives emphasized that the social network had always planned to share the Sentinel Safe data with the attorneys, who could then pass the information on to law enforcement officials in their states.
more...
http://news.com.com/MySpace+to+provi...3-6185333.html
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I figured they'd cave in eventually. It's not a bad thing by any stretch.
I just wonder if it will lead to other data being provided to the government.