I cover housing and transportation, including the companies working in those fields and the regulators overseeing them. I cover health and the environment and the agencies that govern them, including the Environmental Protection Agency. Keith Cousins is an investigative reporter working for Columbia Journalism Investigations.
“Share more about yourself,” “Answer more questions,” “Update your profile frequently” to get more matches, says OkCupid. “The More, the Better.” The amount of information most dating apps want from you is intense. Bumble’s security measures are by far the most extensive, encouraging users to report the match if you meet in person and feel “unsafe or uncomfortable,” or if you see someone who you know is dangerous offline. In November, a Nebraska man’s appeal was rejected after he was sentenced to death for dismembering a woman he met through Tinder. In April, a Connecticut man was charged with murder, sexual misconduct and more after strangling his Tinder date to death. In England in 2015, a 30-year-old man killed a woman on their first date after meeting on the popular dating app Plenty of Fish.
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The share of U.S. adults who say online dating is generally a very or somewhat safe way to meet people has dipped slightly since 2019, from 53% to 48%. Women are more likely than men to say online dating is not too or not at all safe. When it comes to the choices people have on dating sites and apps, 43% of adults overall say people have the right amount of options for dating on these platforms, while 37% think choices are too plentiful. Needless to say, our study has found that people that take part in online dating, are likely to share sensitive information with people they don’t know, or have only Ladate just met. They are also at heightened risk of experiencing an IT security-related problem such as having their data leaked or exposed in some way. Yet, they do little to protect themselves, with only one-in-three putting basic security measures in place such as using strong passwords or restraining themselves to sharing limited information about themselves online.
In addition, the subcommittee is requesting demographic information on the companies’ users and any communications online dating platforms have had with law enforcement agencies related to investigations involving their services. When chatting to a potential date or someone you’ve only just met, it’s best to keep your messages within the dating app. Scammers often want to move you off to encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp, where their behaviour can be less easily monitored. Staying inside the dating app gives you an extra layer of protection, since some apps do not allow people to send links within messages and most will have reporting or blocking functions. And if things don’t work out, you don’t have to worry about the other person having your number.
- Consider planning a ‘safe call’ – that is, asking a friend to call you during the date to check that you are okay.
- To show others you are genuine and allow you to weed out some scammers, many apps offer the ability for you to verify your photos via biometrics.
- But not only does that provide a window into your life, but that lack of safeguards puts you at risk.
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“We want our children to feel comfortable confiding in us if they have concerns about dating relationships or if they have experienced any form of sexual harassment or abuse,” says Valentine. Some 30% of Americans say they have ever used an online dating site or app. Out of those who have used these platforms, 18% say they are currently using them, while an additional 17% say they are not currently doing so but have used them in the past year.
However, some fake dating sites are loaded full of malware, which can infect your devices. In most cases, these money scams take place on sites like match.com where most people are looking for a long-term relationship. The scammer will gain your trust and then ask you to help with an unexpected emergency, for example, medical expenses, needing to take care of a relative, etc.
The latest scam, the Bureau says, targets users once a conversation has progressed into more personal subjects, and a suggestion is made to move from the dating app to a private, encrypted messenger—WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger… Online dating can be treacherous—exactly who is at the other end of all those flirty and exciting messages, and whose pictures have they chosen to share? But now a new FBI warning has taken something of a twist, because the latest threat to dating app users plays on those very fears that all may not be as it seems.
Even after someone filed a police report, they write, the only thing that got him off the company’s dating apps was his arrest. Match Group owns Tinder, OkCupid, Match, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, BlackPeopleMeet, OurTime, and dozens more dating apps. Spark Network owns Christian Mingle, Jdate, Elite Singles, and Zoosk from this list. That means your personal data can be shared from any of the apps within their bigger company. Americans who have never used a dating site or app are particularly skeptical about the safety of online dating. Roughly half of adults who have never used a dating or app (52%) believe that these platforms are a not too or not at all safe way to meet others, compared with 29% of those who have online dated.
Ath Power Consulting was compensated by Aura to conduct this study. In a verification code scam, the scammer claims that a verification code isn’t working for them and asks to send the code to your number instead. Some scammers pretend to be overseas doctors or developers to seem more legitimate. They may also say they’re in the military and stationed in another country. But these links and attachments may contain malware or ransomware. The scammer might also send you to a spoofed version of a site you recognize — like Facebook or Twitter — and steal your login credentials.
Investigative reporter Emily Elena Dugdale worked on the Dating Apps Reporting Project, which was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s A.I. Accountability Network. Dugdale recently spoke with Morning Edition host Michel Martin about the team’s findings, and how Match Group has — and has not — sought to address them. On Valentine’s Day (aww!) Match Group was sued for “locking users into a pay-to-play loop that prioritizes corporate profits over its marketing promises and customers’ relationship goals.” Uh oh. OK-at-privacy eHarmony was also accused of “manipulative selling practices” that laid a “subscription trap” for users. ⁴ Child members on the family plan will only have access to online account monitoring and social security number monitoring features. Results based on a 2025 mystery shopper consumer study conducted by ath Power Consulting.
Are users inadvertently becoming part of a larger narrative without their knowledge? Only time will reveal the extent to which dating apps are manipulated in this way. By focusing on shared social connections — rather than total strangers — Left Field aims to reduce the anonymity that often fuels bad behavior on traditional dating apps. The founders argue that knowing you have mutual friends or shared spaces naturally encourages better conduct. According to the company’s website, the app matches users based on real-life overlaps, including mutual friends, favorite spots, hometowns, neighborhoods, and college towns.
This particular report focuses on the patterns, experiences and attitudes related to online dating in America. These findings are based on a survey conducted Oct. 16 to 28, 2019, among 4,860 U.S. adults. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. Women who have used online dating platforms in the past year are more likely to feel overwhelmed by the number of messages they get, while men are more likely to feel insecure about a lack of messages.
Despite the high proportion of people who use online dating services or apps, there are several factors that can put users off. Many share photos of themselves or their loved ones this way – 15% using online dating have shared photos of their family publicly by displaying them on their profile and 17% have shared photos of their friends. Even more worryingly, one-in-ten (9%) have even shared intimate photos of themselves publicly on their profile, literally exposing themselves to the danger of having their precious or sensitive images mistreated by total strangers.
Dating apps have exploded in popularity over the last few years. There are specialized platforms promising connections for people with the same tastes in music and even food. Award-winning identity theft protection with AI-powered digital security tools, 24/7 White Glove support, and more. Bumble encourages users to do some research on their date, whether that be asking for their last name or for them to get photo verified.
Share your plans with a trusted friend, use location-sharing tools when meeting someone new and speak up if a situation begins to feel unsafe. To find out what the company was doing about reported assaults, the team reviewed hundreds of pages of internal company documents and court records. Because Match Group is a public company, they also had access to SEC filings and investment reports. They also held dozens of interviews with current and former employees and survivors of sexual violence.
Email him at email protected and follow him on Twitter @KeithJCousins. This article is part of Quarter Life, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life. University of Leeds provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.
She meets 26 year-old Bex, who tried to report her Tinder date, who she claims sexually assaulted her during a date. She ended up being banned by Tinder, who took months to respond to her initial complaint. Finally, dating apps encourage users to objectify each other through rapid judgment based on appearance. From rapid swiping with little information beyond a picture on apps like Tinder, to Grindr’s grid of torsos, dating apps make it easy to dismiss with a glance. Despite the risks, online dating remains one of the most common ways couples meet today.
57% of women online daters aged 18 to 34 said they had received sexually explicit messages or images they hadn’t asked for. In the same study, 19% of women aged between 18 and 34 reported threats of physical harm. Other incidents highlight how dating sites or apps can become a venue for bothersome or harassing behavior – especially for women under the age of 35. Roughly a third of online dating users (35%) say they have ever paid to use one of these platforms – including for extra features – but this varies by income, age and gender. Some 45% of online dating users with upper incomes report having paid to use a dating site or app, compared with 36% of users with middle incomes and 28% of those with lower incomes. Similarly, 41% of users 30 and older say they have paid to use these platforms, compared with 22% of those under 30.
Additionally, majorities of online daters say it was at least somewhat easy for them to find others that they found physically attractive, shared common interests with, or who seemed like someone they would want to meet in person. Roughly seven-in-ten online daters believe it is very common for those who use these platforms to lie to try to appear more desirable. And by a wide margin, Americans who have used a dating site or app in the past year say the experience left them feeling more frustrated (45%) than hopeful (28%). Americans – regardless of whether they have personally used online dating services or not – also weighed in on the virtues and pitfalls of online dating. Some 22% of Americans say online dating sites and apps have had a mostly positive effect on dating and relationships, while a similar proportion (26%) believe their effect has been mostly negative.