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The FBI has issued a new warning for dating app users about a scam that involves “verification,” which raises more problems for the platforms as they roll out new safety features.

Scammers have been targeting people signing up for dating apps by asking people they match with to verify their identity “for safety reasons.” They share links to websites to get them off the platform, where they can steal the victim’s money and private data, such as credit card information.

The fake website looks real to users, displaying “fake articles alluding to the legitimacy of the website,” according to the FBI’s announcement. The verification website prompts the victim to provide their name, phone number, email address, and credit card number to “complete the process.” When the victim submits the information, they are led to another dating website charging monthly subscription fees.

Dating app Grindr has been sued in the U.K. for allegedly selling the HIV status of its users to third parties.

According to the BBC, the claim was filed in London’s High Court, and alleges that “covert tracking technology” was used to track and illegally share the personal health status of users with advertisers. More than 650 claimants were affected along with reportedly thousands of other U.K. users.

Sharing personal and sensitive data of users with third parties without their consent is illegal in the U.K.

The lawsuit says the information shared with third parties includes the ethnicities and sexual orientations of users. It also says the sharing of such information took place primarily before April 2018, though some data was shared as recently as April 2020. The lawsuit specifically names two companies which help app developers analyze user engagement, Apptimize and Localytics, as involved third parties with access to the data. The lawsuit also claims that these outside firms might have retained some of the sensitive data for their own purposes.

A new study from the research team at Mozilla has found that dating apps are collecting and selling more information than its users might be aware of.

According to The Washington Post, Mozilla found that 80 percent of the dating apps they reviewed – which include popular apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge among others – may share the personal data of users with their advertisers. In fact, the privacy policies that users must agree with to use these platforms make it clear that their personal information could be sold. But how many are reading the fine print?

Spark Networks’ privacy policy was particularly specific and alarming for its apps JDate, Christian Mingle and Elite Singles. It stated that the apps might collect “sensitive information” including political affiliation, union memberships, and your “sexual preferences and experiences,” according to the Post.

A new report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) has found that people are using apps like Facebook, TikTok and dating app Tinder to traffic guns.

The report released in early April found that between 2017 and 2021, a larger percentage of guns were trafficked over online platforms like these than were sold at gun shows, according to The Washington Times.

The ATF investigation found a number of illegal ways people could obtain firearms, including 3.6 percent of illicit sales from online marketplaces like eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp, 2.7 percent via social platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and 1 percent through social apps like WhatsApp, TikTok and Tinder.

Bumble is giving 50 couples who met on its app a free wedding in Las Vegas.

According to People Magazine, the company announced its plan to celebrate couples who met via its platform with a free wedding, travel included. For one weekend, Bumble has rented out the famous Little White Chapel in Las Vegas and is turning it into a branded wedding venue for 50 lucky couples.

The chapel itself will be decorated in Bumble yellow, which the company is calling Little Yellow Chapel for the wedding weekend. The famous venue has hosted many celebrity weddings, including Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck in 2022, as well as Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner in 2019, according to People.

Hinge dating app has another campaign around its tagline “designed to be deleted,” where mascot Hingie journeys to the afterlife after matching a happy new couple.

According to Adweek, marketing agency Wieden + Kennedy Portland created the ad campaign for Hinge, including a video which expands on the designed to be deleted theme.

The video is meant to appeal to younger daters with its slightly dark yet funny approach. It begins with a couple kissing in their car who decide to make their relationship official by deleting the app, sending Hingie into the afterlife. The ad continues with Hingie’s journey, where the mascot is dropped in front of a judge called The Oracle, who grants Hingie’s passage to heaven through a golden doorway.