Written by @saywooord
Uniform Dating, a dating network for “men and women in uniform” attempted to use their ideal candidate for the advertising, only to find out the man whose picture they chose was married an officer and father, who was completely unaware of the site and their actions.
David Guzman of Golden Beach Police Department in Miami-Dade County has accused the site of taking the photo from his facebook page, an act he did not approve, as he says he never used the site.
NBC News reports Guzman filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida against the British company NSI Holdings Limited. Uniform Dating ran the picture in an ad where they identified him as a single man named Jason. In his complaint, Guzman said he was shocked to see the picture from April 2018, being used and only discovered the ad once friends reached out.
Uniform Dating stole the picture using it for facebook and Instagram ads which Guzman, “never consented to, permitted, assigned, licensed, or otherwise agreed to Defendant’s use of his image,” as said in the suit. When Guzman initially found out, he asked the company to stop all use of his photos. The company then asked him to show proof, only to continue using his picture.
However, NSI Holdings, the parent company of Uniform Dating, says they had permission to use the photo which came from a registered user on their dating site.
“The facts and evidence available to it indicate that Plaintiff himself — or at the very least, someone who knows Plaintiff’s personal identifying information — was the individual who created the profile at issue,” they wrote in their response to the suit.
The company states there was a profile created with accurate information for the police officer which they have verified, leaving out when the page was created. NSI Holdings also claimed to have stopped using Guzman’s photo just days after his complaint.
NSI Holdings alleges they didn’t break the law. The company says it has permission to use any photo users uploads to their site in advertisements, which is made clear in their terms and conditions.
However, Guzman is seeking statutory damages, actual and punitive damages, costs, interest, and restitution from NSI Holdings for using his photo.
