It’s been almost half a decade since news of Ashley Madison’s hacking scandal was heard ‘round the world. Now, just as memories of the hack had started to fade, data from the breach is at the center of a new cyber extortion scam.

In summer 2015, all the dating industry could talk about was The Impact Team — the group of hackers that gained access to Ashley Madison’s database of more than 37 million members and threatened to release customer records unless the dating site for adulterers shut down. The hackers made good on their threat and Ashley Madison found itself facing a $760 million class action lawsuit. Though some predicted that it could be the end of the dating site, Ashley Madison held strong and celebrated reaching 60 million members last year.

A committee from the U.S. House of Representatives is investigating popular dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid following a report that found underage users and sex offenders were using the apps.

According to a report from AP, the House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy sent separate letters on Thursday January 30th to Bumble, Grindr, The Meet Group, and Match Group (which owns Tinder and OkCupid among others). The letters asked for information on “users’ ages, procedures for verifying ages, and any complaints about assaults, rape or the use of the services by minors,” according to AP.

The subcommittee is also seeking additional information on privacy policies for each of the apps, and what users see when they are asked to review or accept such policies. Recently, dating apps have also come under fire for third-party sharing of personal data, where user information wouldn’t be protected by the dating app’s own privacy policy.

A New York City task force on cyber sexual assault has discovered more than 70,000 photos of Tinder users on an online cyber-crime forum. Aaron DeVera, a member of the task force, told reporters that the images were found on a site known for trading in malicious software and that only female users appear to have been targeted.

Gizomodo was the first outlet to share the news. According to the original report, the photos were accompanied by a text file containing around 16,000 unique Tinder user IDs. Items found in the photos, like the iPhone X, and metadata indicate that many of the pictures are relatively current — some, in fact, have timestamps dated as recent as October 2019. The availability of this information to cybercriminals raises serious concerns about why it was collected and what it could be used for.

We’ve all seen a rom-com meet-cute. A soon-to-be couple accidentally touches hands while reaching for the same item at a grocery store. Or ends up covered in coffee when one person literally runs into the other on their walk into work. Or gets into an argument during a minor case of road rage. The best meet-cutes in movies happen under dubious circumstances, often at the most awkward or embarrassing moments of the characters lives.

In real life, most of us would prefer to meet our future partners under better conditions, and thanks to online dating, these love-at-first-site meetings are becoming a thing of the past. According to an article published by Stanford University in 2019, matchmaking is now done primarily by algorithms. Today’s heterosexual singles are more likely to meet a romantic partner online than through personal connections. But is that actually what we want?

This is a summary of the awards and their recipients for the 13^th annual Dating Sites Reviews Choice Awards. These awards honor the best dating apps and sites of 2019 in 11 different categories and where handed out starting this new year in January and continued through to February 14^th (Valentines Day). The dating services listed below are the ones worth checking out in 2020 for those interesting in participating in online dating to find a partner.

Our top award is the Single's Choice Award which is decided by our readers. To participate all you had to do was cast a vote in our poll which ran from October 1^st 2019 until December 31^st 2019. The poll asks you to recommend your choice for the top dating service (app and/or site) from a selection of the ten leading dating services on the internet. The top three dating services who receives the most votes will be the recipient of a Gold, Silver, and Bronze award.

Single's Choice Award

Recipient Tinder

The recipient of the Gold Single's Choice Award for 2020 is Tinder. This dating app is most popular with singles in their twenties and thirties (all age groups are present on the service). Thanks to Tinder's continued innovation in the dating space and their addition of features users are actually looking for, this dating service will continue to remain a leader for the foreseeable future.

For full award information see the article: 2020 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award

Recipient POF

The Silver Single's Choice Award recipient for 2020 is POF (or Plenty of Fish). POF has been in business for over 15 years and was the first free dating service to become really popular (when most at the time were paid). This dating service offers a little bit of everything from swiping to find matches with Meet Me, to using Ultra Match which is a detailed Behavioural Matchmaking System.

For full award information see the article: 2020 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award

Recipient Match

The recipient of the Bronze Single's Choice Award for 2020 is Match (Match.com). The originally grand daddy of dating sites has been going strong for over 20 years. This past year Match went back to the basics when they updated their service. Things are now much simpler to find and use on the apps and website. Match is currently most popular among singles aged 40 and older.

For full award information see the article: 2020 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award

Image: OkCupid

OkCupid launched a new provocative ad campaign called “Ask Yourself,” which focuses on questions that can serve as deal-breakers to younger daters. The campaign doesn’t shy away from getting political, since the majority of its customers are most interested in partners that align with them politically.

The campaign includes illustrated outdoor posters that feature the most popular topics discussed among OkCupid users. For example one poster states: “It’s OK not to date a man who won’t vote for a woman” and “It’s OK to choose to only date someone who’s pro-choice.” It also features animations and a series of polls for Instagram stories, gauging people’s opinions on a wide range of topics from light to serious - such as thoughts on body hair, climate change, and Trump’s impeachment.