Attention : *Confidentialité non incluse avec ce produit
Match has been around since 1995, when online dating was nothing more than a pile of tin can telephones. Nah, not really. But back then most people would have had to visit “Match.com” from a library instead of the comfort of their phone. Today Match is still going strong with millions of users in 24 countries. And after dabbling with both AI and human dating coaches, they're back to the basics. All in all, it’s a pretty standard dating app. You build a profile, search for matches, all the typical dating app stuff. Match is also the namesake app of the Match Group, which owns a whole portfolio of dating sites including Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, and more. Match is free to sign up and use, but if you want to message people who catch your eye that requires paying for the premium features. And as for Match on privacy? Well, it's no match for our standards.
Que pourrait-il se passer en cas de problème ?
Match is the namesake app of the Match Group, aka the company that controls dating. Yep, the Match Group owns over 40 other dating sites that include Tinder, Hinge (the “anti-Tinder”), OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, and more recently, The League. Since Match Group owns the biggest share of dating apps and those dating apps are used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, what they do has a huge impact. That’s why Match Group’s spotty track record and no-good policies are breaking’ our privacy-loving hearts. It also makes us a little nervous about their eagerness to double down on the privacy minefield of AI integration. That's something we'll be keeping a close eye on.
In 2022, the United States Federal Trade Commission filed a petition against Match Group Inc. to force them to hand over documents about a possible data-sharing deal between one of their apps and an AI company, where images of users’ faces were reportedly used to train facial recognition software. Tinder was also hit with lawsuits about their photo verification feature in 2022 and 2023. One lawsuit claimed the app didn't get proper consent from users to process their biometric information and the other lawsuit claimed the feature “verified” a fake account created with the plaintiff's stolen photos. Oh no! And research by Cybernews in 2023 found that a simple hack would make it possible to “track OkCupid [owned by Match Group] users and find their exact location.” Whoa.
So Match’s parent company Match Group has not been known for their security or transparency. But how does their namesake app hold up? Well, their policies aren't great. It worries us because, as a dating app, they sure can collect a lot of information about you. There’s information you give about yourself when you set up your account like your contact information, gender, and who you’d like to meet. Your profile information, the photos you upload, your sexual orientation, interests, and more. Some of that data's going to be sensitive, so you should know that "choos[ing] to provide it" counts as giving your consent for it to be processed by Match Group. Then there’s the information that’s collected automatically when you use the app. Things like your IP address, device information, your activity, when you're on Match, and who you interact with. Oh and your geolocation! Even while you're not using Match (yikes!). You can also choose to give Match access to biometric information (information about your unique face shape) if you want Selfie Verification.
Did we mention your chats? Those conversations can also be filtered by automated tools and may be used to train those tools. And you should know that other humans might be able to read your DMs to be sure you're not engaging in harmful or illegal behavior.
There's more! Match can also collect more information about you from “partners” and affiliates like all those other dating apps owned by Match Group. And they can create inferences about your “preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes” based on what else they know about you. And then they say they can use those inferences they make about your with all that personal information they get from data in your profile for things like "providing advertising or marketing services," and " the contextual customization of ads." Uhg.
Match can use your information for reasons that likely won't improve your love life, like showing you ads. We're sure glad they say they won't sell your personal information. That’s cool! They do share it around though. Like with (surprise!) all those other many Match Group apps. So if you live in the US and you decide to ditch Tinder for Hinge, know that Big Dating is taking notes. Match may also share your personal information with law enforcement, when it’s required by law or to “assist in the prevention or detection of crime (subject in each case to applicable law).” That's pretty standard and Match Group does have some pretty clear guidelines around how they share user data with law enforcement, which we like to see.
Match’s privacy policy also says they can share “non-personal information” and “de-identified” information for targeted ads on Match Group’s services and on third party apps and websites too. And we should point out that researchers say it can be easy to re-identify personal information. Oh, and remember, when you log in using an existing Facebook, Apple, or Google account or connect your Facebook or Instagram to your profile, both platforms can potentially collect more information together. That's why we recommend users don't link their dating apps to social media.
Finally, though Match promises to take the lottery out of love, they do not promise to delete your personal data. They say you might only have the right to get your data deleted based on where you live, meaning what privacy laws you live under. Don't live in a place with strong privacy laws, then you could be out of luck.
So what could go wrong with Match? Well, with all the data-sharing going on between Match Group's apps, we're worried your precious sensitive personal information might be used to keep you bouncing around between apps instead of helping you find what you're looking for. And that might not be such a stretch. A lawsuit filed February 2024 in the United States against claims Match Group’s apps are designed to "coerce subscriptions and retain users forever" by dangling the possibility of establishing an "off-app relationship while implementing features to keep users on the app." Yeesh. That's always a danger when a happy ending is bad for business.
Conseils pour vous protéger
- Turn off Match Group data sharing in the app's Privacy Preferences
- Visit the app's privacy preferences at the app and opt out from personalized advertising as well as all non-essential data collection.
- Request your data be deleted once you stop using the app. Simply deleting an app from your device usually does not erase your personal data nor does close your account.
- Do not give consent to constant geolocation tracking by the app. Better provide geolocation 'only when using the app'.
- Do not share sensitive data through the app.
- Do not give access to your photos and video or camera.
- Do not log in using third-party accounts.
- Do not connect to any third party via the app, or at least make sure that a third party employs decent privacy practices.
- Do not give consent for sharing of personal data for marketing and advertising.
- Choose a strong password! You may use a password control tool like 1Password, KeePass etc.
- Do not use social media plug-ins.
- Use your device privacy controls to limit access to your personal information via app (do not give access to your camera, microphone, images, location unless necessary).
- Keep your app regularly updated.
- Limit ad tracking via your device (eg on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization).
- When starting a sign-up, do not agree to tracking of your data if possible.
Ce produit peut-il m’espionner ?
Caméra
Appareil : Ne s’applique pas
Application : Oui
Microphone
Appareil : Ne s’applique pas
Application : Oui
Piste la géolocalisation
Appareil : Ne s’applique pas
Application : Oui
Que peut-on utiliser pour s’inscrire ?
Adresse e-mail
Oui
Téléphone
Non
Compte tiers
Non
Quelles données l’entreprise collecte-t-elle ?
Personnelles
Login credentials, phone number, gender, date of birth; details on your personality, lifestyle, interests and other details about you, photos and videos; debit or credit card number or other financial information; your chats with other users as well as the content you publish; information from and about the device(s):hardware and software information such as IP address, device ID and type, apps settings and characteristics, app crashes, advertising IDs, identifiers associated with cookies or other technologies that may uniquely identify a device or browser; data about your activity on the services: when you logged in, features you've been using, actions taken, information shown to you, referring webpages address and ads that you interacted with) and your interactions with other users (e.g., users you connect and interact with, when you exchanged with them, number of messages you send and receive).
Corporelles
Photos and videos (with consent); your face geometry data (with consent).
Sociales
Information about other people (for example, if you use contact details of a friend for a given feature); interactions with other users (e.g., users you connect and interact with, when you exchanged with them, number of messages you send and receive).
Comment l’entreprise utilise-t-elle les données ?
Comment pouvez-vous contrôler vos données ?
Quel est l’historique de l’entreprise en matière de protection des données des utilisateurs et utilisatrices ?
In November 2022, the parent company Match Group Inc. was accused in a lawsuit from Tinder users of breaching a state privacy law in Illinois by collecting data on people’s faces from dating app selfies.
The FTC filed a petition on May 26, 2022 to force Match, owned by the parent company Match Group Inc., to comply with a civil investigative demand for documents related to an alleged 2014 data-sharing deal between Match subsidiary OkCupid and Clarifai Inc, an artificial intelligence company.
In September 2023, a New Jersey woman filed a class action suit against Tinder, owned by the parent company Match Group Inc., claiming that the app's photo verification feature failed by verifying an account that was created using stolen images of her.
In December 2023, the research by Cybernews into OkCupid, owned by the parent company Match Group Inc., uncovered that a hacker could uncover a distance from them to the victim (any user of the app) in a 10 to 20-meter radius. "With a few simple steps, we can easily track anyone on OkCupid in a given city – from home, to work, to social gatherings, to wherever. This is a terrible blow to users’ privacy."
In February 2024, Match parent company Match Group was accused in a lawsuit of making their apps addictive and putting profit over their customers' relationship goals.
In March, 2024, Match Group owned Tinder, following a lengthy dialogue with the European Commission, committed to " inform consumers that discounts they propose for premium services are personalised by automated means." "The network of national consumer authorities found that Tinder applied such personalised prices without informing consumers, which is in violation of EU consumer law. In addition, until April 2022, Tinder used to offer lower prices for their premium services based on age without informing the users. Tinder stopped this practice before the investigation started."
Informations liées à la vie privée des enfants
Ce produit peut-il être utilisé hors connexion ?
Informations relatives à la vie privée accessibles et compréhensibles ?
Liens vers les informations concernant la vie privée
Ce produit respecte-t-il nos critères élémentaires de sécurité ?
Chiffrement
"The parent company Match Group shared with us that ""All data stores containing personal data must be encrypted at rest and in transit. Data at rest uses the latest key technologies to cover hybrid data infrastructure, including keys that are created and managed utilizing the latest KMS key policies. Data in transit must utilize predefined SSL policies of TLS-1-1-2017-01 or similar ciphers. MG Security Engineering has an encryption standard that documents the process and procedures and is shared across our brands."" ""Although we take steps to secure your information, we do not promise and you should not expect that your personal information, searches, or other communications will always remain secure. """
Mot de passe robuste
"Your password must contain: At least one upper case letter At least one lower case letter At least one number At least 8 characters"
Mises à jour de sécurité
Gestion des vulnérabilités
"If you are a security researcher and you believe you have found a security issue, click here and e-mail the details of your findings. Please provide any supporting material (proof-of-concept code, tool output, etc.) that would be useful in helping us understand the nature and severity of the vulnerability."
Politique de confidentialité
Match.com is incorporating Generative AI into its services.
Cette IA est-elle non digne de confiance ?
Quel genre de décisions l’IA prend-elle à votre sujet ou pour vous ?
L’entreprise est-elle transparente sur le fonctionnement de l’IA ?
Les fonctionnalités de l’IA peuvent-elles être contrôlées par l’utilisateur ou l’utilisatrice ?
Pour aller plus loin
-
We Tried a Dating App That Lets a Chatbot Break the Ice for You. It Got WeirdWired
-
Popular dating app leak puts millions of women at riskCybernews
-
Match Group leans into AI with new teamMashable
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Pssst! Match.com does not want you to know about this FTC caseReuters
-
Match Group releases its guiding principles for integrating AI into its dating appsFast Company
-
How Match.com is using AI to make its user experience 'more human'IAB
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