The statement “The Internet has a problem with privacy” is not likely to surprise you. We’ve lost much of the privacy we used to have, but that doesn’t mean bad behavior is necessary. You should stop sharing screenshots from people’s profiles on dating apps.
I haven’t used dating apps, so I don’t know much about them. I am familiar with privacy and sharing dating app profiles on social media is not the way to go. This is not only unfair to Tinder users, but it’s also unsafe.
Many dating apps ask for personal information
It’s a simple deal: when someone creates a dating profile, whether it’s on Tinder, Hinge or Bumble, they’re expected to provide enough personal information so that other users can find them more easily. This includes information such as your name, age and location. It may also include your school, interests and your photo.
This information is only shared with other users of the app and specifically within the specified radius. It can be a large number of users, depending on your location, but the numbers are controlled. All users are using the same app. Not all Hinge users, or even everyone with internet access, will know that you are 23 years old and going to graduate school.
When you post a screenshot on the Internet of someone within your radius, it allows exponentially more people to access the information. What are you doing? You’re moving your private data out of a controlled environment and into the world. Internet points? What is temporary fame? Growing up
These screenshots are spread by forums that lack proper moderation.
A post on r/tinder brought it to my attention. Again, I don’t want to invade anyone’s privacy by linking to the post. Redditor, however, posted a screenshot to the subreddit of a Tinder profile, probably to mock them. This post has received nearly 30,000 votes, totaling over 40,000, and almost 5,500 comments. Many of the comments mock Tinder users for their profile choices.
It’s the internet. You can expect cruelties. This user’s name, age and school were exposed to the Reddit community of over 5.6million people. I’m not even a subscriber to r/tinder. I saw the post while browsing r/popular. It’s hard to know how many people who aren’t subscribers saw the post or interacted with it.
One commenter spoke out against the apparent privacy violations, but the majority of users were only interested in making fun of Tinder’s user profile. Who knows how many people Googled them to find out more information?
We should discourage this practice. was wrong for the subreddit in the first instance to have allowed it. The R/tinder policy prohibits sharing of personal information but is vague.
Images that contain any personal information, such as phone numbers, addresses, Facebook profiles, easily identifiable/unique names, etc., will be removed.
Technically, there is nothing in this screenshot that violates the policy. The screenshot had a name, but not an address. It was also a common town. The policy is strict enough to prevent users from sharing screenshots that include personal information like home addresses and phone numbers, but it’s lax enough to allow age and location to be shared.
Share dating app screenshots at your own risk
This is a huge loophole. This information is enough for someone to find this person on the web and possibly determine where they live. Tinder is designed to make it easy for you to avoid being doxxed, but due the poor moderation of forums such as Reddit the risk exists.
You could certainly share less information on your profile but this defeats the point. Before you contact a potential match, wants to learn a bit about them. You should know if your interests are similar, if you live in the same area or ages. It’s the basis of the entire platform.
Please stop sharing Tinder profiles online for everyone’s sake. Nobody wants to date someone who is creepy.
