General News

The infamous “Tinder Swindler” has been banned from several dating apps. Match Group, which owns several popular dating apps including Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid and PlentyofFish, announced that he was no longer welcome on their platforms.

According to Match Group, Shimon Hayut (who also went by Simon Leviev) violated their terms of service, which includes impersonation and asking for money. He created fake profiles on the app using other names in order to keep his con going, according to The Washington Post.

Match Group also said that ahead of the documentary’s release, the company published new guidelines for users to better protect from scammers and exploitation on its apps.

Apple has complied with the rules of Dutch regulators to allow third party payment systems for dating apps instead of going through the Apple Store. However, it will be charging a 27 percent commission to allow these platforms to operate.

Tech Crunch reported that dating apps in the Netherlands are no longer required to go through the Apple Store for handling payments and billing questions, nor are they required to pay Apple 30 percent for each transaction made over a dating app. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets previously fined Apple $5 million euros per week until it complied with its order.

However, dating app developers who use a third-party payment system are now required by Apple to pay a new commission of 27 percent, just slightly below the old charge. Apple is also requiring app developers to send a report of digital sales so they can invoice. And  as Tech Crunch pointed out, dating app developers looking to expand offerings to the Netherlands will have to submit two different apps for approval – the Dutch app and non-Dutch app.

Popular gay dating app Grindr has disappeared from China’s app stores, including the Apple Store, as government officials tighten control over online behavior. 

Chinese officials said there were compliance issues with Grindr regarding China’s Personal Information Protection Law, according to Bloomberg. The law requires that data stored in applications that is transferred to other locations be approved by government officials, and it limits the amount of personal data stored in apps.

In addition, China’s Internet authority began a month-long campaign to identify and eliminate any illegal and sensitive online content, according to the Bangkok Post. This move comes at an interesting time, coinciding with the celebration of the Beijing Olympic Games and the Lunar New Year.

China-based dating app Yumi has started beta testing experiences in its new metaverse, called Meta Town, hoping to attract young Gen Z daters who are interested in immersive experiences.

Users can create avatars based on their photos, explore the metaverse to find other virtual daters, and have real-time audio conversations with “artificial intelligence-powered translation,” according to the South China Morning Post, making it easier for daters who don’t speak the same language to connect.

The metaverse is a platform where people can interact via avatars in real time and in different virtual spaces, often with the ability to exchange virtual goods and services. 

Tinder is adding more features to ramp up safety for its users, including background checks and educating staff on how to handle reports of abuse.

The dating app company announced the new measures in a blog post, noting that all customer service team members are now being trained on “how survivors might respond to sexual violence and describe those experiences, how to recognize serious reports that may use vague language, and how to respond in a trauma-informed manner to these types of reports,” according to the company’s blog post.

Last year, Tinder’s parent company Match Group invested in the safety nonprofit Garbo, which will be providing the background checks for users. Garbo can check a wide variety of public records on a potential match, and notify a user if the match has a history of violence, as well as any other potential issues like DUIs or vehicular manslaughter. The company doesn’t include drug possession charges or minor traffic violations in its reporting. 

Apple has been fined five million euros for not complying with a recent ruling regarding dating apps leveled by the Authority for Consumers and Markets, a watchdog agency in The Netherlands.

The ACM said that Apple had not yet complied with its order to allow third-party payment options for dating apps on the Apple Store platform, which was issued in late December. The agency also said that it would continue to fine Apple five million euros per week (roughly $5.6 million US) until it properly complies with the order, up to $50 million euros in total, according to The Verge.

The issue is that while developers can now let Apple know if they are interested in using third party payment systems in their apps, Apple has not provided a straightforward way to do this, and there is very little technical support in place from Apple to help developers move forward. Another issue is that Apple is forcing developers to choose between two options: directing users to a third-party site to complete transactions outside of the Apple Store, or to stay in the Store’s ecosystem if they want to keep in-app purchases as an option for users.