New Website Lets Anyone Spy on Tinder Users (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader cites an article on The Guardian: Tinder isn't as private as many of its users think, and a new website which aims to exploit that is causing concern among users of the dating app Swipebuster promises to let Tinder users find out whether people they know have an account on the dating app, and even stalk them down to their last known location. The website charges $4.99 to let someone see whether the target is using Tinder, and can narrow down results by first name, age, gender and location. But it doesn't do so by hacking into Tinder, or even by "scraping" the app manually. Instead, it searches the database using Tinder's official API, which is intended for use by third-party developers who want to write software that plugs in with the site. All the information that it can reveal is considered public by the company, and revealed through the API with few safeguards.

Comments

Tinder is not a dating app.

[dc29A]

Tinder is not a dating app, it's a fuck finder app.

Re:Tinder is not a dating app.

[a4r6]

a lot of people say that, but then if you look at tinder, a great deal of the profiles say not into hookups, looking for dates.

in reality there are probably a huge number of men looking for random sex, and very few women, with very few actual 1st encounter hookups.
much like what ashleymadison turned out to be...

Re:Tinder is not a dating app.

[fustakrakich]

Is there a difference? I mean, isn't dating more than just fine dining on Hollywood Boulevard?

Re:Tinder is not a dating app.

[Bob_Who]

Tinder is not a dating app, it's a fuck finder app.

And this is a fucker found app

Re:Tinder is not a dating app.

[Anonymous Coward]

i dont see a problem with that. it removes alot of the BS for people who dont want to deal with that. That being said its about time that people started realizing what information they are giving to a company and how much that company cares about it.

Re:Tinder is not a dating app.

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you used tinder? your "in reality" is not the reality. yes some profiles say not looking to hookup, but they are just playing hard to get.

Ok cupid is more for dating, Tinder is for hookups and Plenty of fish seems to be the middle ground. I speak from experience, its pretty easy to see from how the user interface is designed.

Re:Tinder is not a dating app.

[BotanistPrime]

Women use it for random hookups too. They just couch it in their approach a la Netflix & Chill. My roommate gets propositioned about once a week. Interestingly gay men actually use it more for dating purposes since we already have several fuck apps.

Re:Tinder is not a dating app.

[vux984]

No, AshleyMadison turned out to be mostly men talking to bots and fake female accounts.

Tinder is at least people interacting with people. I have no idea how many hookups happen, but I'd bet its a lot more than you think, and a LOT more than ever happened on AM.

Re:Tinder is not a dating app.

[Luthair]

It originally started out that way but its largely changed as I understand it.

Re:Tinder is not a dating app.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I met my current GF on tinder, a little over 1.5 years ago. Had it not been for the photos each of us had, we likely would have passed by each other outside the pubs.

Re: Tinder is not a dating app.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, I've even seen this behavior on OkCupid; a woman who posts a new selfie every week, likes every man's profile, collects as many likes and messages as she can... then doesn't respond to any of them. Obviously just playing a game to stroke her ego about how many men still find her attractive. Probably even already has a boyfriend/husband.

Just curious how you actually know that these gals are not responding to anyone's messages. Hint: just because she is not responding to you doesn't mean she isn't responding to anyone.

Re:Tinder is not a dating app.

[rmdingler]

FD: I have never used Tinder, outside of a Bear Grylls situation.

My 20ish son has used it to entice girls to his apt for some Netflix and chill multiple times with crafty lines like, "Do you like what you see?"

I swear it used to be more difficult than that.

Re: Tinder is not a dating app.

[Lord Kano]

My point is that Tinder is a hook-up app.

Tinder?

[sims 2]

Is that a new amazon app for their line of fire products?

Re:Tinder?

[fustakrakich]

Specifically a line of batteries...

Re:Tinder?

[ColdWetDog]

I thought Sony had trademarked that.

tinder user = generalized man

[sittingnut]

"we don't even know what living means now, what it is, and what it is called? leave us alone without books[internet] and we shall be lost and in confusion at once. we shall not know what to join on to, what to cling to, what to love and what to hate, what to respect and what to despise. we are oppressed at being men--men with a real individual body and blood, we are ashamed of it, we think it a disgrace and try to contrive to be some sort of impossible generalized man.
we are stillborn, and for generations past have been begotten, not by living fathers, and that suits us better and better. we are developing a taste for it. soon we shall contrive to be born somehow from an idea."
--notes from underground by fyodor mikhailovich dostoyevsky

Re:Anybody who uses a Facebook product is an idiot

[im_thatoneguy]

Do you mean every app on the internet is a "facebook app" even if it's not owned by Facebook? Are you using "Facebook" like "Kleenex"?

End of story.

[Frosty Piss]

Tinder will soon block the app. End of story.

Re:End of story.

[LynnwoodRooster]

...says the nervous Tinder user...

Prediction

[The-Ixian]

TOS will be updated and API key revoked within days.

Never used Tinder, but I would expect that this new web site can only cause harm to Tinder users.

New employee tracker

[Billly Gates]

I can see this being used by bosses and HR to see if someone is really sick or not

Big surprise

[holophrastic]

An app designed to expose a person to nearby persons isn't private? Who'd have thunk it?

Isn't that the definition of not private to begin with?

Just a word of warning guys:

[Narcocide]

I've looked into lots of these APIs myself, as well as their license agreements for the developer accounts required to use them. Twitter and Facebook's aren't any more capable of protecting user data from being harvested by app creators. The privacy of your friend's list and its spidery web of interconnects to other site users is protected by the honor system only.

But...

[Greyfox]

But Grindr is still OK, right?