Dating Services

Facebook has come under fire, with many longtime users debating whether or not to delete their accounts, rather than make their personal information vulnerable to third parties. But something you might not have considered, brought to light by a reporter from Mashable, is how deleting Facebook might affect your love life.

Many dating apps rely on Facebook to verify profile information – that is, to make sure you really are a person and not a bot or an advertisement. With this in mind, many apps require that you use your Facebook account to login, including Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and other really popular apps.

Research firm Cambridge Analytica was accused of hijacking data from 50 million Facebook users and using the data to influence the 2016 U.S. election. This information breach was made possible because Facebook relies on third parties for ad revenue, and also partners with research firms like Cambridge Analytica, which leaves its platform open to security problems. Facebook maintains it didn’t know about the information grab, though evidence has come to light via whistleblower Christopher Wylie, who developed the strategy for hijacking and using the data to create targeted political profiles of Americans.

Tinder stalkers of the world, rejoice! After testing a chronological feed with users in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada late last year, Tinder has announced it’s rolling out the feature to all users worldwide.

A December 2017 blog post describes Feed as “an exciting new way to see more of what someone is all about by giving you a true glimpse into their world—their passions, their personality, their latest adventure—all leading to better conversations and deeper connections.”

Feed aggregates real-time updates from your matches, including recent photos and Spotify Anthems, to present “a visual and interactive experience that helps you spark conversation with the people you want to meet most.” Posts appear in the timeline in order beginning with the most recent changes to a profile. A match’s occupation and distance from you (the last time they opened the app) is also listed beneath each entry.

The relationship between Bumble and Tinder took a toxic turn last month when Match Group, Tinder’s parent company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against its female-friendly competitor.

The suit, filed in Texas on March 16, accuses Bumble of copying key elements of Tinder’s functionality and alleges that trade secrets were stolen by Bumble employees who previously worked at Tinder. Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble’s founder and CEO, was herself a Tinder executive before filing a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company in 2014 and leaving to start her own venture.

Herd was initially silent when news of the Match Group lawsuit broke, but has since responded in grand, defiant fashion with a full page ad in the New York Times as well on their blog.

eHarmony is having a free communication event this Easter long weekend. It starts Thursday March 29^th and runs to end of day on Monday April 2^nd for eHarmony members in the United States.

This event is for existing and new eHarmony members. Creating a profile is free and no credit card is required. During the holidays dating services usually are extra busy as members log in and look to communicate with matches. This means it is an ideal time to try out eHarmony as it allows you to create a profile (and fill in the personality questionnaire), receive matches, and communicate with those matches at no cost to you. The whole process only requires about 30 minutes to complete. After you will receive your first batch of quality matches from eHarmony in witch you can send messages too (and receive messages from). You also receive new matches every day which are determined by eHarmony's matchmaking algorithm. eHarmony not only takes your requests about the type of person you like into account but determines matches based on 29 dimensions of compatibility.

Please note free communication events do not include profile photos. To view those you must be a subscriber to eHarmony. For more about this online dating service with automated matches, please read our eHarmony review. The eHarmony dating service can be accessed via their website along with phone apps which are available at the Apple App Store and Google Play.

There’s no love lost between dating app rivals Tinder and Bumble. Shortly after it was revealed that Tinder will enable a Bumble-style ladies-first messaging feature in a future update, news has broken that Tinder is suing Bumble for patent infringement.

Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg divulged Tinder’s patent acquisition in a Q4 earnings call last month.

“On the product front, Tinder has been on the cutting edge of innovation since its inception in 2012, inventing the swipe gesture, which has since become this cultural phenomenon of 'swipe right' and 'swipe left' and that is often imitated on mobile products,” she said.

It’s the end of an era for denizens of the internet’s seedier side: Craigslist has axed its personal ads in the United States.

The popular classifieds website made the move after the passage of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) on Wednesday, March 21. The act makes it easier for prosecutors and victims of sex trafficking to sue websites that fail to keep exploitative content posted by traffickers off their websites.

In a brief statement posted to Craigslist, the company said: