Match.com

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Dating apps are getting serious about user safety. Following last month’s announcement that new safety features are coming to Tinder, another major dating platform owned by Match Group is adding safety features of its own. Match.com’s latest release is Date Check-In, a communication tool that allows users to keep selected friends and family members informed while they’re on a date.

Going on a date with someone you met online can be intimidating — not just because any first date comes with its fair share of nerves, but also because of the potential to wind up entangled with a con artist, creep or other unsavory character. With Date Check-In, Match users can easily send out an SOS if they feel unsafe. The feature lets users designate three emergency contacts who will receive an automated notification in case of emergency.

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.

Recipient of Gold
Tinder

Recipient of Silver
POF

Recipient of Bronze
Match

The 2020 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll went online October 1^st, 2019. It ran for 3 months and then closed for voting on December 31^st, 2019. 513 visitors took time and cast their vote in the poll. The poll asked the following question:

Which dating app or site would you recommend for the Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award?

Voters get to choose 1 dating service from a selection of 10 of the top dating services in 2019. These services are selected by the Editors of DatingSitesReviews.com. For this award the dating service which received the most votes gets the Gold, second place gets Silver, and the third, Bronze.

It was a really close race this year. The top 3 results differed by only 2% in votes (usually this number is much greater). The votes for all the dating services were much more evenly spread out with the lowest and highest only having just less than a 10% difference (this number in previous years could be higher than 30%). What this tells us is that the dating services have matured and user experiences and successes have evened out more across the competition.

The recipient of the 2020 Single's Choice Gold Award is Tinder. Tinder received almost 15% of the vote which works out to 76 votes. Tinder was the winner of Gold as well last year but had 17% of the vote.

The recipient of the 2020 Single's Choice Silver Award is POF (Plenty of Fish). Once again POF comes in second place with 13.65% of the vote (70 votes in total). This is an improvement for them over last year when comparing votes by about half a percent.

The recipient of the 2020 Single's Choice Bronze Award is Match.com. Match received 12.67% of the votes (65 votes) and almost was able to achieve second place. In fact Match missed out on this award last year and it is the first time a paid only dating service has won when competing against free dating services (in previous years we had separated free and paid services in the poll). So this is quite an accomplishment.

Recipient
Match.com

The Match dating service is the recipient of the 2020 Editor's Top Pick - Paid award. From a paid dating service perspective Match has always been in the top spot in terms of number of active members. Thanks to smart marking TV campaigns singles continue to flock to the service with the expectations of meeting other singles serious about finding love. As with other paid dating services you can only communicate with members once you have paid for a subscription. It is free to create a profile and search, but that is about it. The advantages of communicating only with paid members are really important though. First, you know the other person is actively looking to date since they have money on the line, and second, since most subscriptions are paid by credit or debit card this means that their is much less chance of the person being some sort of scammer when compared to the free dating services.

Match Group announced its investment in and partnership with safety platform Noonlight to roll out a series of safety tools across its apps, including a “panic” button for emergencies.

According to Tech Crunch, the new feature will allow users to discreetly summon emergency services through the app if they are feeling uneasy or need assistance while on a date. The user can input information about their dates, including when and where they are going and with whom. They can then share their location so the app tracks them during the date, and hit a panic button if they feel unsafe. The panic button connects the user with Noonlight’s dispatchers, and if needed, Noonlight will alert emergency responders to their location. 

Match.com released an official statement regarding the Federal Trade Commission’s allegations that the dating service exposed consumers to the risk of fraud and engaged in other deceptive and unfair business practices.

In a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Texas, the FTC alleges that Match used fake notifications to trick users into upgrading to premium subscriptions and that the company deceived consumers by failing to provide clear disclosures and cancellation practices. Match has denied the allegations, claiming that the issues pointed out by the FTC have “either been taken grossly out of context or permanently eliminated by Match.”