Safety

The FTC in mid-September issued a statement urging people using LGBTQ+ dating apps to be cautious amid the growing number of scammers who operate on these apps.

Apps like Grindr and Feeld were named in particular as the FTC warned of an increasing number of scammers who seek explicit photos and then use them to extort money. According to Consumer Reports, the attackers pose as interested romantic partners and chat with intended victims. These scammers send explicit photos quickly, seeing who responds with a similar photo in return.

The next part plays out like an episode of Black Mirror, where if the victim does send an explicit photo in hopes of connecting in person, the attacker quickly turns on them and uses blackmail to extort money. The attackers threaten to send the photo to the victim’s personal networks, including family and friends or even an employer unless they pay (usually via gift card). 

Match Group and Bumble CEOs

The CEOs of dating companies Match Group and Bumble have created relief funds for people in Texas affected by the new abortion ban.

The new law, also known as SB8, prevents women from having abortions after six weeks, long before most women know they are pregnant and effectively banning them altogether. In addition, citizens have been empowered and incentivized to bring civil lawsuits against anyone involved in assisting a woman getting an abortion, including doctors, family members, and even rideshare drivers. As a result, the female CEOs of two dating companies based in Texas – Match Group and Bumble – are fighting back on behalf of women by setting up funds to help people receive care out of state.

According to CNBC, Match Group’s CEO Shar Dubey announced that she will personally finance and help the company’s Texas-based employees receive out of state care if they need it. Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd announced the company will create a fund for people in Texas who need access to care and send the money to organizations that support reproductive rights. 

Dating app Bumble’s platform was found to have a security vulnerability capable of leaking the exact locations of its users, putting them at risk of potential attackers.

The researcher who discovered the security flaw created two fake profiles, one for the “attacker” and one for the “victim,” to check vulnerabilities in the app’s API. He was able to bypass signature checks for API requests, which meant he got around Bumble’s paywall to execute the attack.

His test revealed the exact location and the distance of the fake victim from the fake attacker through a process of trilateration, according to security trade magazine The Daily Swig. In other words, he figured out how the app calculated and matched approximate user locations by rounding down the exact distance they are from each other. 

Dating app Bumble is taking another step to address concerns of abuse and harassment on its female-friendly platform: offering trauma services for those who need help.

The company partnered with remote trauma support site Bloom, operated by non-profit Chayn in the U.K., to offer free therapeutic services to users, according to Mashable. Bloom provides online courses on mental health topics for survivors of sexual assault and harassment, such as managing anxiety.

In addition to Bloom’s online courses, Bumble users can receive up to six therapy sessions and can chat online with therapists when they need. Chayn’s therapists are trained in sexual assault and trauma therapy, and some are survivors themselves, according to Mashable. 

Tinder announced that it will roll out its ID verification system worldwide so users can verify their ages. This follows the app’s photo verification feature to address the issue of eliminating fake profiles propagating the app.

ID verification will be prominently displayed on a user’s profile, similar to the blue checkmark currently used for a verified photo, according to Tech Crunch.

Tinder began beta testing ID verification regionally in 2019 and said it will be rolling it out worldwide over the next few quarters. In most countries the service will be voluntary, at least for now, to address the challenge of underage people using the app. However, in places like Japan where it’s against the law for people under 18 to use dating apps, verifying ages will be mandatory. The feature will be free to use.

Google is cracking down on so-called “sugar dating” apps in its Play Store, and will shut them down as of September 1st.

The search engine behemoth has carried dating apps that offer “compensated sexual relationships” in its store, but in the push to crack down on these potentially exploitative apps, the company has now issued a strict policy for its store. Google is making other safety and security changes too, including a new initiative to shut down inactive developer accounts, according to The Verge.

Google made the announcement without specifying why it’s taking these actions now, but The Verge points out that it could be related to the FOSTA-SESTA legislation which was enacted in 2018, “which removes Section 230 protections for content that ‘promotes or facilitates prostitution.’” There has been a recent crackdown on platforms that deal in online sex work.