Dating Services

Popular dating apps including Tinder, OkCupid, Happn, and Grindr have come under fire from consumer rights groups and privacy coalitions for sharing personal data of their users with third parties, specifically advertisers.

A study was published this month from the Norwegian Consumer Council that showed 10 apps were collecting sensitive information including a user’s exact location from GPS tracking, sexual orientation, religious and political beliefs, drug use and other information and sharing it with at least 135 different third party companies, according to several reports. Some of those businesses included household names like Google and Facebook, but also lesser-known adtech companies such as OpenX, MoPub, and AppNexus. The study only looked at apps on Android phones, according to NPR.

This type of data collection and sharing violates the European Union’s rules to protect user data online under the General Data Protection Regulation.

Image: Pipsay

Four months after Facebook Dating’s launch, consumer insights platform Piplsay has released a report on the long-awaited feature. Piplsay polled 21,242 Americans to find out how successful Facebook’s foray into online dating has been so far. The short answer: it’s complicated.

Dating was introduced at Facebook’s annual F8 developers’ conference in 2018. After initially launching in a handful of countries abroad, the service finally made its US debut in September 2019. News outlets and dating industry competitors were quick to comment on the launch in exhaustive detail, but it appears that Facebook’s clout and the media’s seemingly-infinite coverage have not been enough to catapult Dating into the industry’s upper echelon.

Dating app Hinge is looking to capitalize on the popularity of its new mascot Hingie. The company just launched an online store selling Hingie-related products, according to AdWeek.

Hinge launched a new marketing campaign in 2019 saying that the dating app was “designed to be deleted” to promote its focus on long-term relationships. The company created TV and web spots featuring a cuddly-looking square named Hingie that proceeds towards its own demise as a couple who meet over Hinge get closer, until they finally delete the app – and Hingie along with it.

Recipient
eHarmony

The 2020 Editor's Top Pick - Match System award recipient is eHarmony. This dating service had a whirlwind year. They where acquired by German Broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 and then late in 2019, they launched a big update which included not only interface changes but major core improvements to how the actual service works. These changes happened to both their website and dating apps (available on iOS and Android). Don't worry, eHarmony is still all about matching and their revamped Compatibility Quiz (originally called the Relationship Questionnaire) shows their commitment to their continued strategy of matching members to create meaningfully long term relationships. Another surprising thing from the update is that the new eHarmony now will provide matches for someone looking for a relationship with the same gender. It doesn't matter what your gender is either, as both have almost an equal chance of finding someone since eHarmony's members are made up of 51% men and 49% women.

Recipient
Facebook Dating

Facebook Dating is the recipient of the 2020 Editor's Top Pick - Up & Coming award. It's a bit weird giving Facebook this award which is meant more for newer dating services. Facebook is over 15 years old now, but they have not had an online dating service (owned directly by Facebook) available to the masses until surprisingly last year. It is called Facebook Dating and is only available from the Facebook app (for iOs and Android). Thanks to Facebook being one of the largest services online and with billions of users it quickly took off (even despite the recent privacy breaches Facebook has had).

Actress Sharon Stone was blocked on Bumble in late December, and took to Twitter to air her concerns publicly. Bumble responded and tried to restore her profile, but days later, Stone still wasn’t able to access it.

Stone signed up for Bumble to start dating again, according to reports. She was surprised when the female-friendly app quickly shut her profile down, claiming it was fake. She then posted about it on Twitter and Instagram, along with the screenshot of the message from Bumble saying she was blocked.

“I went on the @bumble dating [site] and they closed my account. 👁👁 Some users reported that it couldn’t possibly be me!” she tweeted. “Hey @bumble, is being me exclusionary ? 🤷🏼‍♀️ Don’t shut me out of the hive 🐝”