Dating Apps Are a Privacy Nightmare: 80% of Them Share Your Data

A Mozilla report has given the ‘Privacy Not Included’ label to 22 popular dating apps
80% of the 25 dating apps may share your personal details with unauthorized third parties
Grindr was found to be the worst dating app from a user data security viewpoint

A new report from Mozilla Foundation reveals shocking details about popular dating apps. Not only do these apps collect a ton of user information, but 52% of them (a sample of 25 apps) do not even do the bare minimum to protect this data.

More than 80% of these dating apps may sell or share your data with third parties like advertisers.

These apps were also found to be collecting data beyond the customary name, photos, and email address.

Data being collected includes race, political views, sexuality, ethnicity, weight, and HIV status.
Some apps were also found to be collecting “sexual life experiences” – a real shocker!
Plus, most apps request you to even verify your biometrics, offering you a ‘verified status’ in return.
Some apps can even read the metadata of the photos you upload, By doing so, they can know where and when these photos were taken.

As a result of the poor security structure, Mozilla has awarded the ‘Privacy Not Included’ label to 22 of the 25 dating apps. The following three apps were found to be following appropriate security protocols:

Lex
Happn
Eharmony

Even out of this, only Lex received a ‘thumbs up’.

Grindr was found to be the worst dating app in the research. This app is meant for men seeking men for romantic relationships, which calls for better security. However, Grindr doesn’t seem to realize its responsibility.

For starters, the platform may soon use users’ chats to train AI features, which are about to roll out soon, such as the paid boyfriend chatbot.
Secondly, a recent incident was brought to light where sensitive Grindr data was bought by a US Catholic group, which was used by them to keep an eye on their clergy.

Apart from Grindr, the worst dating apps as per the research are:

CoffeeMeetsBagel
Black People Meet
OurTime

These apps have received a ‘cross’ on all privacy criteria – data use, data control, track record, and data security.

The Dangers of AI

The reports also talk extensively about the dangers of integrating AI functions into these dating apps. More than half of the apps have already integrated AI, while others are also planning to do the same.

Certain apps were also found to be misusing AI to restrict matches to particular races, colors, ethnicities, and nationalities.

While some of these features are good, like Bumble’s Deception Detector, others seem just unnecessary. For example, Tinder’s profile picture selector allows the app to look into your photo gallery to pick the best photo for potential matches.

Moreover, Match Group – the world’s largest dating app group, has a bad history of AI blips. Recently in 2022, the FTC launched an investigation into OKCupid’s data-sharing deal.

Under this, the app proposed to use images on its platform to train facial recognition programs, raising a lot of eyebrows.

The Monopoly Problem

Although it might seem that there are a lot of dating apps, almost all of them are controlled by two major companies – the Match Group and the Spark Network.

The Match Group owns apps like Tinder, Match, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish, and OurTime.
Spark Network runs apps like Bumble, Badoo, Jdate, and Zoosk, among others

The problem is that data can be cross-shared without any consent between these apps within the company. For example, your Tinder data can be shared with OkCupid, and so on.

Romance Scams

These dating apps are also home to lurking romance scammers, who pretend to be interested in you, but all they want is your money. As per an FTC report, these scams led to losses of $1.14 billion in 2023. The worst part is that no app is immune to these scams.

Read more: Romance scam statistics 2024 – common types of scams & how to stay safe

Tips to Secure Your Dating App Profiles

Here are some tips you can resort to to increase security for your dating app profiles:

Never link your socials with a dating app, which risks more information leakage and privacy breaches.
Do not provide permissions such as locations, microphone, camera, phonebook, and others. Check your app’s settings to ensure you only share the data which is absolutely necessary.
Treat your dating profile like you’d treat your profile on LinkedIn. Consider all the data to be public and only share what you’re OK with.

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