Consumer advocates raise the alarm: Dating apps such as Tinder pass private user data on to third parties without permission. This is quite possible and is happening more and more often these days! No wonder that dating applications such as Tinder are enjoying growing popularity. But flirting online harbors unexpected dangers. When searching for the dream partner, many users provide information about their preferences, sexual orientation and other status quite freely. Sensitive details that can do a lot of damage in the wrong hands. In fact, the private details for many dating apps seem to be anything but secure.
Tinder Data Transfer Without Consent
This is the result of a recent study by the consumer advice center NCC. Accordingly, the examined flirt app passes personal data on to at least 100 external advertising and profiling companies without the consent of the users. The information collected includes locations, private details about online usage behavior and can be clearly assigned to people using IP addresses. In this way, companies are able to create exact user profiles. According to the NCC, the unauthorized disclosure of the data is a violation of the law, which is why a complaint has now been lodged with the data protection authority.
The Starting Address For Many Hackers
Although neither the recorded data nor the database entries allow conclusions to be drawn about the Facebook profile of current or former chat partners, the connection to the social network is problematic for several reasons: Every Tinder user inevitably also has a Facebook profile, which is likely to be unique about being identified. All the information that Tinder displays comes from Facebook, including age, employer and interests. Since Facebook is easy to search, it is the starting address for many snoopers. Even if there are no serious data protection problems at Tinder itself, many users inadvertently reveal themselves via Facebook.
In many cases, Tinder suggests people with whom you have mutual friends on Facebook. A look at their friend list is usually enough to know who you are dealing with. Those who want to flirt can be identified far more often than expected using the first names displayed on Tinder. Many users seem to find Facebook’s data protection settings too complicated or generally do not trust the network. Instead of properly protecting their own profile from insights by strangers, they prefer to trust that they will not be found under an imaginary name.
