Most dating apps may share or sell your personal data for advertising: Report

IANS

San Francisco, April 23

Most dating apps (80 per cent) might share or sell your personal data for advertising, a new report revealed on Tuesday.

The developer of the Firefox Internet browser Mozilla examined 25 apps and labelled 22 of them as ‘Privacy Not Included’—the lowest rating in its parlance.

The researcher only gave positive feedback to queer-owned and run Lex, while Harmony and Happn received adequate ratings.

“Dating apps claim the more personal data you share the more likely you are to find love. We have no way of knowing if that’s true. What we do know is that most dating apps fail spectacularly at protecting that information,” said Researcher Misha Rykov.

According to the report, about 25 per cent of the apps collect metadata from your content—which is information in the files about when the photo (or video) was taken, where, and what day. In addition, the report mentioned most dating apps, such as Hinge, Tinder, OKCupid, Match, Plenty of Fish, BLK and BlackPeopleMeet, have access to precise geo-location data from their users.

Some apps, like Hinge, even collect location information in the background when the app is not actively being used.

For all dating apps, the researchers shared their top three privacy tips—treat your dating profile more like your LinkedIn profile, don’t log in with a third-party account and limit app permissions where possible.

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