Aviso: *Privacidade não incluída neste produto
For many people, the best part of using a dating app is the day you get to delete it. That sure sign you've found true love and don't need to muck about any more with the fiery hot hell that is dating. Whoo, what a relief! Welcome to Hinge, the dating app designed to be deleted. Hinge wants you to know they've made a relationship app, not a dating or hookup app. What's all this mean? Hinge asks users to provide vitals (neighborhood where you live, gender, height, education, and the like) and what they call virtues, your opinion on things from politics to alcohol and drugs and more, a picture, and an answer to a writing prompt. Then users go forth and use all that profile information to not just look for pictures, but use the prompts as a place to start a conversation. Does Hinge actually work to get you to delete it? It did for American politician Pete Buttigieg, who says he met his husband on Hinge.
O que pode acontecer se algo der errado?
You know that ancient meme that’s like, “You were supposed to destroy the thing, not join them!”? Well that’s kinda how it feels researching Hinge, the totally different and designed-to-be-deleted dating app which was acquired by Big Dating aka the Match Group back in 2019. That's because Match Group’s privacy and security track record is not very good. And Hinge’s policies? Well, just like the rest of the Match Group apps’, they're also not good.
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. Match Group-owned Tinder was also hit with lawsuits about their photo verification feature in 2022 and 2023. One says that the app didn't get proper consent from users to process their biometric information and the other claims the feature “verified” a fake account created with the plaintiff's stolen photos. Yikes. In 2023, research by Cybernews found that a simple hack would make it possible to “track [Match Group-owned] OkCupid users and find their exact location.” Whoa. Match Group's shaky track record 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.
Onto Hinge. Hinge says its nobel-prize winning algorithm is designed to help people find their person. Their "love scientists" insist Hinge does not want to keep you on the app. Awww! But Hinge users wonder if they might have other priorities too since your “most compatible” matches are locked behind a paywall in “rose jail”. Some users felt strongly enough about this that they filed a lawsuit against Hinge's parent company in February 2024 in the United States. That lawsuit 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. Because we know so little about how most dating apps and algorithms work, it’s hard to say for sure what they’re designed to do. We do know that under Match Group, Hinge is expected to make ten times more than they did four years ago.
Anywho! The app designed for "real people" collects a whole bunch of personal information from them. 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. There's also your profile information, the photos you upload, your sexual orientation, interests, and more. Some of the information you give Hinge to help you find love is pretty personal, so you should know that just providing it means "you’re consenting to [Hinge's] processing of that information". Then there’s the information that’s collected automatically when you use the app. Your IP address, device information, your activity, and who you match with. Oh and your geolocation! Even while you're not using Hinge. You can also choose to give Hinge access to biometric information (information about your unique face shape) if you want to use Selfie Verification. Did we mention your DMs yet? Hinge processes those to make sure you're not engaging in harmful or illegal behavior. They can be filtered by automated tools and may be reviewed by humans -- just so you know. Your conversations also help train those tools.
Hinge can also collect more information about you from “partners” and affiliates like those many other sites 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. It’s a lot!
Plus, Hinge can use your information for reasons that won't likely lead to more great dates, 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 Match Group companies. Hinge 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.
Hinge’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 Hinge promises it wants to be deleted, that doesn't mean they'll delete your personal information if you ask. It's just not clear whether all users can count on that. So what could go wrong with Hinge? Well since Hinge can use your personal information for ad targeting and can share information with Match Group's other apps, what if the same kinds of ads that convinced you to delete Tinder and download the "anti-Tinder" Hinge figure out that you are getting tired of buying your matches from"rose jail" and start targeting you with ads that tell you to delete Hinge and download the new "anti-Hinge", whatever-it-will-be-called? And so continues an endless loop of loneliness, app-hopping, money spent on subscription, and your data being used to make a big company more money instead of helping you meet your match.
Dicas para se proteger
- 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 advertisement.
- 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.
Pode me bisbilhotar?
Câmera
Dispositivo: Não aplicável
Aplicativo: Sim
Microfone
Dispositivo: Não aplicável
Aplicativo: Sim
Rastreia localização
Dispositivo: Não aplicável
Aplicativo: Sim
O que pode ser usado para se inscrever?
Sim
Celular
Sim
Conta de terceiros
Sim
You can add your Facebook, Google (on Android), or Apple ID login in addition to your phone number.
Que dados a empresa coleta?
Pessoal
Phone number and email address, gender, date of birth, and who you’d like to connect with, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and political opinions; precise geolocation data; usage Information: activity data, including when you logged in, features you've been using, actions taken, information shown to you, referring web pages address, ads that you interacted with; information from and about the device(s) you use to access the services, including hardware and software information such as IP address, device ID and type, apps settings and characteristics, app crashes, advertising IDs (which are randomly generated numbers that you can reset by going into your device’ settings and, in some cases, disable entirely), and identifiers associated with cookies or other technologies that may uniquely identify a device or browser.
Relacionado ao corpo
"Photos, videos, and audio clips; face geometry data (with consent)."
Social
Interactions with other users (e.g., users you connect and interact with, and when you matched and exchanged messages with them)
Como a empresa usa esses dados?
Como você pode controlar seus dados?
Qual é o histórico conhecido da empresa na proteção de dados dos usuários?
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, Hinge 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."
Informações de privacidade infantil
Este produto pode ser usado offline?
Informações de privacidade fáceis de entender?
Links para informações de privacidade
Este produto atende aos nossos padrões mínimos de segurança?
Criptografia
"User-submitted data is encrypted both in transit and at rest and stored securely in the cloud." 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."
Senha forte
Atualizações de segurança
Gerencia vulnerabilidades
Política de privacidade
Hinge's feature 'Most Compatible' attempts to use all your cumulative data to find the match for you.
Esta inteligência artificial não é confiável?
Que tipo de decisões a inteligência artificial faz sobre você ou por você?
A empresa é transparente sobre como funciona a inteligência artificial?
O usuário tem controle sobre os recursos da inteligência artificial?
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