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Image: Grindr

Grindr has shut off the explore option on its platform for the Olympic Village in Paris to protect the identities of athletes who are staying there to compete.

According to Pink News, the gay dating app has blocked global visibility for the Village area. Social media posts have shown that when you search for people in the Olympic Village, no profiles are offered.

According to Grindr’s announcement about the move, it said: “We're turning off features like "Explore" and "Roam" within the Olympic Village. The ‘show distance’ feature will also be turned off by default, but users can share their approximate distance if they decide to turn it on.”

Tinder has launched its new feature Photo Selector, an AI-based tool that helps users choose the best photos to use in their profiles to generate the best match results.

According to Tech Crunch, the new feature uses facial detection technology. When a user uploads a selfie on the app, the AI detects the unique facial geometry to identify the person’s face and pulls up matching photos from their camera roll. The feature then curates a collection of ten photos that will perform best on the person’s profile.

Photo Selector is intended to help users through what can be a time-consuming process of sifting through camera roll photos. According to a recent survey by Tinder, 68% of participants expressed that an AI photo selection feature would be helpful, and 52% reported having trouble selecting profile images. 

Bumble has announced a new reporting feature for users to alert the app if they suspect a profile of displaying AI-generated photos and videos.

“Fake Profile” allows users to flag and report accounts that they think are AI-generated and being used to deceive other app users. According to Tech Crunch, people using AI to beef up their profiles is creating a new problem on dating apps (aside from the typical bots, spam accounts, and safety issues that have been around for a while) – and that is whether or not to believe that the person in the profile they are seeing is actually that person, or an AI-enhanced version of them.

For example, someone could generate a photo of themselves to make them look more like Taylor Swift, or alter their bodies to show muscles they don’t have in real life, hoping to attract more matches through deception. In other words, they are gaming the system with AI.

Image: photoroom

OkCupid and AI-powered app Photoroom have partnered to introduce a new tool that helps erase your ex from your best photos.

According to OkCupid’s press release, the “Ex-Terminator” is a new feature designed to help users digitally remove their exes from photos they want to post on the dating app. Using AI technology, Photoroom seamlessly edits out unwanted people, giving OkCupid users a chance to update their profiles with new solo lifestyle.

Interested people can go to Photoroom’s website and see the promotional page with OkCupid, dubbed “Erase Your Ex.” From there, you can drop an image and Photoroom will erase your ex and deliver your photo back to upload to OkCupid. (There’s also a link to join the dating app from the site if you’re not already a member.)

Tinder and Hinge announced new features to ramp up safety for their users, including sharing date details with family and friends and filtering unwanted language from comments and messages.

Tinder’s new safety feature Share My Date allows users to share date plans they make with their family and friends for additional safety, including details like location, date and time along with their match's photo. They can do this using the feature up to 30 days in advance, according to USA Today.

While Tinder says about 30 percent of its users already share this information with close friends or family, it makes it much more convenient and top-of-mind to be able to share via the app.

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.