Waarschuwing: *Privacy niet inbegrepen bij dit product
Founded in 2001, this dating app is targeted at Christians looking for other Christians to date. Free to sign up and browse profiles, users must have a subscription to message other users. With around 15 million users worldwide, the app allows users to target specific Christian denominations such as Catholic, Baptist, or Pentecostal, as well as ethnicity as part of their search. Singles can also sort their matches by Christian Mingle's compatibility score or try Tinder-esque swiping with the LookBook feature. Up until 2016, gays and lesbians weren't welcome on the app as searches were limited to "man seeking woman" or "woman seeking man." A non-discrimination lawsuit forced Christian Mingle to add in the "man seeking man" and "woman seeing woman" options although you can't distinguish between gay and lesbian and straight people within the app.
Wat kan er gebeuren als er iets misgaat?
Here's an odd little victory: the ChristianMingle app no longer demands access to your phone's flashlight! Yep, that is something we noticed about the app's permissions when we first reviewed it in 2021. We're sure there's a joke in here somewhere about seeing the light. We'll refrain from making it. But baby steps aside, ChristianMingle (still) comes with *Privacy Not Included.
ChristianMingle sure can collect a lot of information about its users. First there's contact information, like your name, email, address, and phone number. Then there's what counts as "sensitive information" like -- excuse me? -- your "sexual preferences and experiences". It's not unheard of for sex-related data to make its way into privacy policies but "experiences"? That is a new one for us. There's also your race, ethnicity, political affiliation, religious affiliation, union memberships, biometric information, videos, "physical characteristics" and a lot more. Basically, all the information you give about yourself while you're on the app can be collected by ChristianMingle, including whatever you add to your profile or send in messages. And when ChristianMingle collects your photos and videos, they can collect extra information from the files (called metadata) -- like the time the photo was taken, where, and what day. They can also scan your content with third party services to "help identify your interests and activities—such as if your photo includes pets, sports or trips—and to help [them] provide better matches for you." Ruh-roh! Be sure to get your pup's consent before uploading that adorable selfie album then.
On top of all that, there's some information collected automatically from your device. Mostly that's information about your device, but can include personal information like your IP address and even other apps that you've downloaded. Oh, and location data. Did we mention everything you do on ChristianMingle? That's collected too. My goodness, there is more. ChristianMingle can collect information about you from other sources -- like other people, social media, and affiliates. And they can use your personal information to make assumptions about you, called inferences. ChristianMingle's privacy policy also says users can import their address book and can be notified when their contacts sign up for the services. That might be awkward if your auntie is on ChristianMingle, uploads her address book, and then gets a notification that you've joined after you told her you don't want to be set up because you're definitely not looking to date right now.
It's a LOT of information! The privacy policy even says that "[w]here you do not provide the personal data detailed in this Policy, we may not be able to provide you with the Services." OK so at least some of the time, giving up all that information isn't exactly "optional" either. Dang, what is it all for? Well, aside from helping you find God-Centered Love, ChristianMingle can use personal information such as your gender, age, and "usage data" to "deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you" and to measure their effectiveness. That's not great. They can also share your personal information with their affiliates -- which includes all those other apps owned by the app's parent company like Jdate, Elite Singles, and Zoosk -- as well as ad and social networks.
When ChrstianMingle isn't giving your data away, we're worried it could be breached or hacked -- especially since we can't determine if they meet our Minimum Security Standards. Whether the app encrypts your personal data, requires strong passwords, or manages security vulnerabilities is a mystery to us. Yikes! That all makes it extra annoying that not all users are guaranteed the right to delete their personal data. So what could go wrong with ChristianMingle? Well, since your usage data could be used for targeted ads and profiling, your swiping habits could be used to make assumptions about you and then try to sell you stuff based on that. And just because you swipe right in the wee hours doesn't mean you're desperately lonely and definitely doesn't mean you want to buy one of those human-shaped pillows for company.
Tips om uzelf te beschermen
- Follow Christian Mingle's Safety Tips.
- 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.
Kan het me bespioneren?
Camera
Apparaat: Niet beschikbaar
App: Ja
Microfoon
Apparaat: Niet beschikbaar
App: Ja
Volgt locatie
Apparaat: Niet beschikbaar
App: Ja
Wat is er nodig om u aan te melden?
E-mailadres
Ja
Telefoonnummer
Nee
Account van derden
Ja
Facebook and Apple sign-up is available
Welke gegevens verzamelt het bedrijf?
Persoonlijke
Name, email address, phone number, address, race, ethnicity, sexual preferences and experiences, political affiliation, religious affiliation, union memberships, biometric information, birth date, videos, password, billing information, credit card information, demographic information, place of work, education, your personal interests and background, gender, age, dating age range preference, physical characteristics, personal description, life experiences, geographic location, your photos; IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, platform type, cookies, device ID, IDFA, Google AdID, device type, model, manufacturer, mobile device operating system brand, model, mobile carrier, phone number, email address, cookies, web beacons, embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, file information, similar technology, location data.
Lichaamsgerelateerd
Biometric information, physical characteristics, personal description, photos and any information derived from them
Sociale
Dating insights, address book.
Hoe gebruikt het bedrijf deze gegevens?
Hoe kunt u uw gegevens beheren?
Hoe staat het bedrijf bekend als het gaat om het beschermen van gebruikersgegevens?
No known data breaches discovered in the last three years.
Privacyinformatie voor kinderen
Kan dit product offline worden gebruikt?
Gebruikersvriendelijke privacy-informatie?
Koppelingen naar privacy-informatie
Voldoet dit product aan onze minimale beveiligingsnormen?
Versleuteling
We cannot confirm encryption at rest and in transit for this app.
Sterk wachtwoord
Unfortunately, the app had a bug that did not allow us to log in.
Opmerkingen
Hebt u een opmerking? Laat het ons weten.