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27th Sep 2017

The amount of information Tinder has about you is very, very scary

They know everything about you.

Alan Loughnane

Tinder

We assume a lot of apps are like this…

With how much we use our smartphones, there’s no doubt an accurate picture of our lives could be created by harvesting the information stored on our phones.

As we’re sure many of you are aware, apps on your phone collect and store information about you. This is no secret, but the sheer scale of the information they keep on you could catch you by surprise even from apps you might not use as frequently as Facebook or Instagram; something like Tinder.

When it comes to seeking a partner in Ireland, it seems that Tinder is still the most popular way to try and earn yourself a date.

The dating app is the hugely popular in Ireland with figures from Ipsos MRBI showing that a whopping 200,000 people in Ireland have a Tinder account.

But, 50,000 people are using the app every single day in Ireland, swiping their way through a smorgasbord of potential matches.

So how much information does Tinder have on all these people who use the app, with various degrees of frequency?

Well, when a Guardian journalist requested that Tinder send her a copy of all the information they had stored on her, she received 800 pages of data from the dating app.

The information had concluded what type of guy she was interested in as well as creating an accurate picture of her life.

It also included when and where every conversation on the app had occurred, every message she ever sent on the app and how many times she’d used it.

It also had access to all of her Facebook likes and interests, including the types of food she likes and old Instagrams from an account she’d deactivated.

According to Tinder’s privacy policy: “We [Tinder] do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information, chats, or other communications will always remain secure.”

It also says that your data may be used for targeted advertising.

You can also request your information be shown to you, the process involves an email to the [email protected] email address with a clear and precise list of all the information you want with the subject line “Subject Access Request”.

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Topics:

Tinder