Warning: *privacy not included with this product
BlackPeopleMeet
Review date: 02/07/2021
BlackPeopleMeet is a dating app targeted toward Black men and women, although anyone can sign up to the app regardless of race. Launched in 2002, BlackPeopleMeet claims to be the largest dating site for Black singles in the US, with around 10% of their users living outside the US. The only personal information you'll need to give when signing up is gender, birth date, zip code, and email. Users can browse profiles and look for matches for free. Messaging potential matches is only available as a premium feature with a paid subscription.
What could happen if something goes wrong
Match Group owns BlackPeopleMeet and at least 45 other dating sites like Tinder, OKCupid, and Plenty of Fish. When you sign up with one of these dating sites, their privacy policy states they may share your personal information with any of the other 45+ Match Groups sites. That's a lot of personal data you might have thought only going to once place getting shared across multiple dating sites with hundreds of millions of users. Add in the fact that a Norwegian Research Council study recently found some of these Match Group sites may be sharing users' personal information like your location and dating preferences to marketing companies in ways that may violate privacy laws, and you've got yourself a potential privacy mess. On top of that, when you connect a social media account like Facebook to that dating app, both Facebook and the dating app now potentially collect more information together. What's the worst that could happen? Well, BlackPeopleMeet knows where you live, what race you are, and how you describe yourself in a nutshell. If that sensitive personal information isn't secured properly, it could get leaked, shared with Kanye West, and he could use that to target people with ads for his 2024 run for President. This maybe isn't super likely to happen, but hey, weirder things have.
Privacy
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: N/A
App: Yes
Microphone
Device: N/A
App: No
Tracks Location
Device: N/A
App: Yes
What is required to sign up?
Yes
Phone
No
Third party account
No
What data does it collect?
Personal
Email (required), birth date (required), zip code (required), sexual preference (required), gender (optional), education (optional), income (optional), children (optional), ethnicity (optional), hair (optional), pet (optional), religion (optional), occupation (optional), relationship status (optional), smoking (optional), star sign (optional), eyes (optional), hometown (optional), descriptions (optional), photos (optional). Collects data on ethnicity and might allow users to filter for it.
Biometric
Height (optional)
Social
If a user connects their social media accounts to their dating profile, BlackPeopleMeet collects data from that social media account, such as Facebook. However, BlackPeopleMeet does not specify what data it collects and how it uses it.
How does it use this data?
How can you control your data?
What is the company’s known track record for protecting users’ data?
No known incidents in the last two years
Can this product be used offline?
User friendly privacy information?
Links to privacy information
Security
Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?
Encryption
We were unable to determine if they use encryption to protect users' personal information, chats, photos, and more.
Strong password
Password must be a minimum of six characters.
Security updates
Manages vulnerabilities
Encourages security researchers to disclose any potential vulnerabilities uncovered to [email protected] https://www.blackpeoplemeet.com/v3/security.
