Online Dating

Facebook Dating just launched, but privacy advocates are warning despite all the opt-in features, Facebook could be collecting more data than you realize.

Facebook Dating is reassuring potential customers by allowing them to make decisions about how visible they want to be on the app – including providing features to block certain users from appearing in your matches (like an ex) and hiding your dating profile from friends and work colleagues. Even some of the more questionable features – like “secret crush” – where you can identify someone you secretly like over the app, and if they do the same you two are matched, are only activated when users choose them.

Near the end of September, Tinder had a litigious week. News of two legal matters - one new, one ongoing - that involve the dating platform and its parent company recently came to light.

Tinder has issued two complaints alleging trademark infringement to the startup dating app Wild. The complaints concern Wild’s original logo, which featured a mirror image of Tinder’s flame design in place of the dot over the ‘i’. Match Group, owner of the Tinder brand, sent an email to Wild demanding that the logo be changed:

"Your application uses, without authorization, the 'Flame Outline' design/logo, a trademark owned and controlled by Tinder, Inc… As we seek an amicable and swift resolution to this matter, we ask that your app immediately cease using any Tinder trademarks of any other name or mark which is likely to lead consumers to mistakenly believe its products or services are associated with Tinder or authorized by Tinder. If satisfactory modification is not made to address these violations, we ask that your application be removed from the platform."

Popular beauty brand Urban Decay has partnered with dating app Bumble in its latest marketing campaign launch to promote its new line of Naked Honey makeup products.

Urban Decay will give away 1,000 of its new eye makeup palettes over Bumble’s app. The campaign will target users across all three of Bumble’s services – BumbleDate, BumbleBFF and BumbleBiz - to reach the app’s 63 million users. Bumble will also cross-promote the campaign on Instagram.

Urban Decay’s partnership with a female-forward dating app is an extension of its existing Instagram campaign, which featured megastar singer and body-positive advocate Lizzo wearing the new makeup line.

The Federal Trade Commission announced it is suing Match Group for using fake notifications to trick users into paying for subscriptions to Match.com. The FTC also alleges that Match Group unfairly exposed consumers to the risk of fraud and engaged in other allegedly deceptive and unfair practices to induce users to subscribe and keep them subscribed to the dating service.

Match.com allows users to create a profile and use some of the platform’s features for free. However, users are prohibited from responding to messages from admirers unless they upgrade to a higher membership tier with a subscription fee. According to the FTC’s complaint, Match sent misleading advertisements to users with free accounts stating that someone had expressed interest in them and encouraging them to subscribe to the service to view the message and the identity of its sender. Many users purchased subscriptions as a result of these deceptive ads, believing they were going to communicate with a real user who could be “the one.”

The word “transparency” gets thrown around frequently. We ask for transparency from governments, we ask for transparency from companies, we ask for transparency from our communities. On a personal level, transparency means openness, communication and accountability - being your true self and building relationships based on trust and authenticity.

Needless to say, online dating does not always live up to these high ideals. Photos are staged and edited to conceal perceived flaws. Profiles are carefully crafted to attract potential suitors. The problem of people creating false identities online to lure unsuspecting lovers is so prevalent that we’ve given it a name - catfishing - and an MTV show. It’s no wonder modern singles are so skeptical of each other.

Tinder's New Series is called Swipe Night

Tinder will be releasing an original six-episode video series over its app, according to an exclusive report in Variety Magazine.

The new series will be a “choose your own adventure” story available to users when they log into the app. It’s interactive content, so users are able to swipe left and right to continue to different versions of the story. The basic premise involves the apocalypse, and asks the question: “Who would you spend your last night alive with?”