The greatest risk of dating through apps is that you often find yourself meeting up in person with a complete stranger—someone who could have a history of violence and do you bodily harm.
Tinder’s parent company, Match, is attempting to give U.S. users greater access to information that would help them make informed decisions about their matches. The company has announced that it will be bringing background checks to its dating apps, including Tinder, Hinge, and OKCupid.
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The online dating conglomerate is pairing up with Garbo, a non-profit background-check platform concerned with gender-based violence, to test out the software on Tinder in the coming months in the U.S. before rolling it out to the rest of Match’s dating apps.
On Tinder, Garbo’s background checks will only need a last name and a phone number to provide “historical information about violence and abuse to empower people to make more informed decisions and choices about their safety.”
Safety on dating apps
Implementing these checks in an industry that surged last year will be welcomed by many. In 2019, an investigation by ProPublica found registered sex offenders on several of Match Group’s free platforms, including Tinder.
The publication of the investigation triggered scrutiny from Congress, who urged in a letter to Match Group’s president Shar Dubey to “take swift action to reduce the risk of sexual and dating violence against their users” and do “everything in their power to ensure the safety of their users.”
At the moment, a person needs to report on a person’s violent past to Tinder or similar apps in order to get them removed from the platform. Additionally, Tinder and Bumble also have photo verification and in-app video calling to verify the person’s identity.
Will it work?
To Garbo’s credit, they have been selective about what the relevant background checks cover, specifically excluding individuals charged with drug charges and traffic violations, arguing that “the research continues to show that there is no link between drug possession and gender-based violence.” The organization also continues to evaluate how best to use public records and reports to proactively prevent gender-based violence in the digital age.
But with these background checks being the first of its kind in the online-dating industry, it is hard to say whether there are additional unintended privacy violations that may occur for the apps’ users. Tinder already shares 21% of the information you give it to third parties, although arguably sharing “only” phone numbers and last names with a tool intended to protect its users is probably one of the lesser data sharing problems.
The background check tool isn’t live yet, and it’s currently unclear how users will access this (paid) tool to check their potential matches, or even how accurate the system will be. However, it will likely require users to provide true personal details, including a last name and phone number, for starters. And this might drive anyone hoping to stay anonymous on dating apps to find alternatives.
Are background checks on dating apps a good idea? Let us know in the comments!
Read more: Online dating and privacy: Will it ever be a match?
Comments
At least based on the story it seems that users can opt out of being checked by not providing a real last name and at the surface that would render this feature pointless. However, it might end up like Bumbles photo verification feature where users can take a selfie and be verified if their selfie resembles the photos they upload (maybe this feature is also on Tinder, idk). Users that are verified get a verified badge, users that don’t do not get the badge and may come off as less desirable to potential suitors. I don’t know whether the verified badge actually makes a profile more desirable, would be interesting data from Bumble to publish.
If opting into background checks provides an actual advantage in getting matches then users with spotless records are incentivized to opt-in, and users that opt-out may be seen as less desirable. This is one potential outcome, remains to be seen how it will play out.
First, it’s a false sense of hope since most background companies , such as BeenVerified , allows people to opt-out of being included in there database. Second, what defines a sex offender varies greatly from state to state. For example, person may be a violent serial rapist or an 18 year old who continued to date his 17 year old girlfriend after high school. In any event, Match no doubt gets a cut from the background check company. Best to all, Darren Chaker