800 pages of intimate data: What Tinder knows about its users

The EU Data Protection Act allows Europeans to access data if data is collected about them anywhere. The author Judith Duportail made use of her right and described in the newspaper The Guardianwhat she received in response from the dating app Tinder.

She has been using the app since 2013, has opened it 920 times since then and has had 870 matches with potential partners.

Duportail received 800 pages of data about her from Tinder. This included her Facebook likes and Instagram photos, even though she had long since deleted the corresponding profile. Her level of education, her "preying pattern" with the opposite sex, when she was online, where and how often. And, of course, all 1700 Tinder messages she had sent - with all the intimate details.

Olivier Keyes, a data scientist at the University of Washington, soberly warns: "Every app you regularly use on your smartphone has the same kind of data." Facebook, for example, has thousands of pages of personal data.

The fact that a company collects data is one thing. The fact that it can be sold to other companies or, in the worst case, stolen by hackers and made accessible to anyone is another. This is why the Tinder privacy policy states: "Don't expect your personal data to be safe forever."

According to a spokesperson, Tinder officially collects the data in order to perfect the user experience. In other words, to present the most suitable, personalized candidates to those willing to flirt. Tinder is keeping how exactly the matching works to itself.

Paul-Olivier Dehaye, a privacy activist, sees the example of Tinder as just the "tip of the iceberg". The personal and intimate data would not only determine who Tinder suggests next, but also which job offers you have access to on LinkedIn, how much you pay for car insurance, which advertisements you are shown and whether you get a loan. (hae)