Open Secrets: STD Warnings on the Web

There's a new kind of e-card being sent around, but it's an invitation no one ever wants to get. InSPOTLA.org a controversial website launched in mid-December by Los Angeles County, lets people e-mail their sexual partners a free, unsigned Internet postcard--with or without a personal note--stating that the sender has had HIV or another sexually transmitted disease diagnosed and that the recipient should get tested. Targeting gay men who meet online, the program is based on the original inSPOT.org website, which began in San Francisco more than a year ago to combat the syphilis epidemic in that population but only just started including HIV notifications. Health-care agencies in Indiana, California, Colorado, Philadelphia and Seattle have plans to launch inSPOT sites later this year, while many others are considering doing so.

People wishing to avoid an awkward conversation or remain anonymous can go to the inSPOT websites and choose from six e-cards with sayings such as "Going through my address book and you're on the list" or "I got screwed while screwing, you might have too." They're blunt but apparently popular. In its first two weeks, L.A.'s site has had 21,600 people send 38,000 e-cards.

That may seem like progress, but not everyone agrees. Critics argue that e-cards are an insensitive way to tell people about something as grave and personal as HIV and can be abused by pranksters wanting to play jokes. "What if you're vulnerable emotionally, and you get a surprise [HIV] e-mail?" asks West Hollywood city councilman Jeffrey Prang. "Maybe the computer at your office or home isn't secure." Still, compared with the risks of ignorance, those might be chances worth taking.