Safety

Dating app Bumble agreed to pay the state of New Jersey $315,000 in a settlement after the state’s Attorney General Matthew Platkin argued that the dating company violated state consumer protection and internet dating safety laws. The lawsuit alleged that Bumble allowed convicted sex offenders and other criminals on the app without warning other users.

Starting in 2020, the Division of Consumer Affairs launched an investigation into Bumble and Badoo dating platforms amid concerns of sexual assault occurring on the dating apps, and found that the company either “inaccurately represented their criminal background screening policies or failed to disclose them all,” according to NJBiz.com. They concluded that this violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and the Internet Dating Safety Act.

Bumble Inc. owns both Bumble and Badoo dating apps.

Tinder is expanding its AI-powered ID Verification feature to the U.S., U.K., Brazil, and Mexico, making it available by this summer.

According to the company’s press release, the new safety feature requires users to upload a video selfie and a valid Driver’s License or Passport. The AI-powered feature will then check to see if the face in the video selfie matches both the photo ID and the user’s profile photos, and will check the date of birth on the official ID.

The new feature adds another layer of security to using Photo Verification alone, where video selfies are compared to photos. Now, the official ID is also checked as part of the process.

Match Group signed a partnership deal with OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4, which includes over 1,000 ChatGPT Enterprise licenses for company employees to help with their work-related tasks. Match Group noted that the press release announcing the move was written by ChatGPT.

While Match Group has been heavily focused on using AI to develop new features for its platform, this move incorporates it into the company’s internal workflow. Employees will use ChatGPT-4 to aid with coding, design, analysis, to build templates, and other tasks.

It will also help with marketing communications, although the press release is a bit over the top. As Tech Crunch notes, even though releases are designed to create buzz and excitement, Match’s latest announcement is heavy with love analogies and puns, which makes for a groan-inducing read.

Image: Tinder

Tinder has updated its community guidelines with AI-based warnings that detect problematic messages and behavior of users and issue warning messages to adhere to the community guidelines, or they will be removed from the app.

The new warnings, according to Tinder’s press release, center around three categories: authenticity, respect and inclusivity.

The warnings come as an update to the Community Guidelines, which serve as the basis for expected behavior of users on the app. They aim to protect users against harassment, and “advertising and impersonation,” according to the release.

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble launched Deception Detector, an AI-based feature that aims to cut down on bots and fake profiles.

According to ZD Net, the new feature leverages the machine learning-based technology to help identify fake, scam or spam profiles on the app before the user comes into contact with them. The feature can assess the authenticity of a profile and, according to Bumble’s test, supported automatically blocking 95 percent of accounts identified as spam or scam by the company.

Bumble was quick to add that the AI-based feature will be used in conjunction with “dedicated human support” for added safety for its members.

Bumble also said in its release that within the first two months of the technology’s introduction, the platform saw member reports of spam, scam, and fake accounts reduced by 45%.

Birth rates have gone down in Japan, so the local Tokyo government wants to tackle the problem with a new government-issued dating app in hopes of sparking some romance.

The big selling point for this dating app is that you won’t have to endure the high numbers of bots that come with regular dating apps, and that the platform offers a more secure online dating experience for users. The new app is backed by a government-approved vetting process, which requires users to prove their marital status and income and to take part in an online interview to confirm their identity, according to Sora News 24.

The app will be run by a private company, but the government will require official documentation from users to prove their marital status and identity, according to Nikkei Asia.