Five dating app dilemmas answered by experts
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Loading... - Ella Murph
- 11 Jul 2022
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Striking a balance between protecting your data, ensuring your personal security and getting the most out of dating apps can be tricky. Here’ some advice on the dos and don’ts
In an online wild west populated by scammers and hackers, dating apps pose challenges beyond just finding a partner. It’s getting harder to tell if your date is who they say they are, and that’s before you consider the data security and privacy implications of using the apps on your smartphone.
It’s difficult to maintain privacy when apps such as Hinge, Tinder and Bumble need to collect data to match you with potential dates. Then there’s the data you share with other users – including your sexual orientation, age and social media information – that could put you at risk if it gets into the wrong hands.
Here’s what you need to know about using dating apps safely and privately, while still getting the most out of them.
Should you use your real name in your profile?
When creating a dating profile, you’ll need to display some information for potential matches to see. But it’s pretty easy to track someone down online if you know their first name and occupation, and you might not be comfortable with this.
Thankfully, most dating apps cater for people who wish to maintain some level of online privacy. Bumble, for example, allows you to use initials, shortened versions of your name, or nicknames.
To show others you are genuine and allow you to weed out some scammers, many apps offer the ability for you to verify your photos via biometrics. Bumble uses artificial intelligence (AI) for verification, which shows up as a blue shield on someone’s profile.
However, this type of verification only proves the verification selfie and the profile pictures are of the same individual – other details on the profile could be false. To take a well-known example, Netflix’s “Tinder Swindler” Shimon Hayut used real photos of himself and would have evaded these checks.
For additional privacy, RAINN, a nonprofit organisation focusing on protecting people from sexual violence, advises using different photos from your social media pages on your dating profile: “It’s easy to do a reverse image search with Google. If your dating profile has a photo that also shows up on your Instagram or Facebook account, it will be easier for someone to find you on social media.”
Be careful not to post any personal details such as where you work out or your address. Match Group, which owns Hinge and Tinder, advises being “vague” when setting up your profile. Once you are chatting to people, never provide financial information to anyone, a spokeswoman at Match Group warns.
Pros and cons of moving conversations to WhatsApp
Dating apps don’t include end-to-end encryption – the gold standard of security protection that means no one can read your messages, even the app maker itself – but messaging app WhatsApp does. Does this mean it’s better and more private to move your conversations to WhatsApp?
Not really. While your WhatsApp messages will be completely private, it’s not as easy to root out any bad behaviour, which dating apps are good at monitoring to help you stay safe. Bumble and Match recommend keeping conversations within the app so they can monitor any harassment or other bad behaviour.
The Online Dating Association also recommends you remain on the dating service until you feel you know the person you’ve been matched with, and ideally after you’ve met them in person. “Dating services have processes to deal with anything harmful happening in a conversation,” says Hannah Shimko, communications and policy director at the Online Dating Association. “In our research, we see the majority of romance fraud taking place on WhatsApp or via text message once the conversation has moved off the dating service and the scammer has freedom to manipulate.”
Dating app safety features include Bumble’s “private detector”, which uses AI to detect and blur nude images. Meanwhile, Match Group uses AI to proactively detect language that could be harmful. If something is detected in a message, a feature asks: “Does this bother you?” and encourages you to report it.
You can easily block and report people through most dating apps, before and after you are matched with them.
WhatsApp allows you to block people too, but there are other things to consider. Moving to WhatsApp requires exchanging phone numbers, which may be trackable via search engines or social media platforms, says Jake Moore, global cybersecurity adviser at ESET. “It is very important to keep conversations within the platform until you are confident.” Read More...
