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Privacy Security Software

New Website Lets Anyone Spy on Tinder Users (theguardian.com) 54

An anonymous reader cites an article on The Guardian: Tinder isn't as private as many of its users think, and a new website which aims to exploit that is causing concern among users of the dating app Swipebuster promises to let Tinder users find out whether people they know have an account on the dating app, and even stalk them down to their last known location. The website charges $4.99 to let someone see whether the target is using Tinder, and can narrow down results by first name, age, gender and location. But it doesn't do so by hacking into Tinder, or even by "scraping" the app manually. Instead, it searches the database using Tinder's official API, which is intended for use by third-party developers who want to write software that plugs in with the site. All the information that it can reveal is considered public by the company, and revealed through the API with few safeguards.
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New Website Lets Anyone Spy on Tinder Users

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  • by dc29A ( 636871 ) * on Tuesday April 05, 2016 @02:59PM (#51848277)

    Tinder is not a dating app, it's a fuck finder app.

    • by a4r6 ( 978521 )

      a lot of people say that, but then if you look at tinder, a great deal of the profiles say not into hookups, looking for dates.

      in reality there are probably a huge number of men looking for random sex, and very few women, with very few actual 1st encounter hookups.
      much like what ashleymadison turned out to be...

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Have you used tinder? your "in reality" is not the reality. yes some profiles say not looking to hookup, but they are just playing hard to get.

        Ok cupid is more for dating, Tinder is for hookups and Plenty of fish seems to be the middle ground. I speak from experience, its pretty easy to see from how the user interface is designed.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          Actually, I met my current GF on tinder, a little over 1.5 years ago. Had it not been for the photos each of us had, we likely would have passed by each other outside the pubs.

      • Women use it for random hookups too. They just couch it in their approach a la Netflix & Chill. My roommate gets propositioned about once a week. Interestingly gay men actually use it more for dating purposes since we already have several fuck apps.
      • by vux984 ( 928602 )

        No, AshleyMadison turned out to be mostly men talking to bots and fake female accounts.

        Tinder is at least people interacting with people. I have no idea how many hookups happen, but I'd bet its a lot more than you think, and a LOT more than ever happened on AM.

      • by rmdingler ( 1955220 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2016 @06:32PM (#51849379) Journal
        FD: I have never used Tinder, outside of a Bear Grylls situation.

        My 20ish son has used it to entice girls to his apt for some Netflix and chill [urbandictionary.com] multiple times with crafty lines like, "Do you like what you see?"

        I swear it used to be more difficult than that.

    • Is there a difference? I mean, isn't dating more than just fine dining on Hollywood Boulevard?

    • by Bob_Who ( 926234 )

      Tinder is not a dating app, it's a fuck finder app.

      And this is a fucker found app

    • by Anonymous Coward

      i dont see a problem with that. it removes alot of the BS for people who dont want to deal with that. That being said its about time that people started realizing what information they are giving to a company and how much that company cares about it.

    • by Luthair ( 847766 )
      It originally started out that way but its largely changed as I understand it.
  • Tinder? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sims 2 ( 994794 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2016 @03:09PM (#51848323)

    Is that a new amazon app for their line of fire products?

  • "we don't even know what living means now, what it is, and what it is called? leave us alone without books[internet] and we shall be lost and in confusion at once. we shall not know what to join on to, what to cling to, what to love and what to hate, what to respect and what to despise. we are oppressed at being men--men with a real individual body and blood, we are ashamed of it, we think it a disgrace and try to contrive to be some sort of impossible generalized man.
    we are stillborn, and for generations p

  • Tinder will soon block the app. End of story.

  • TOS will be updated and API key revoked within days.

    Never used Tinder, but I would expect that this new web site can only cause harm to Tinder users.

  • by Billly Gates ( 198444 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2016 @03:46PM (#51848579) Journal

    I can see this being used by bosses and HR to see if someone is really sick or not

  • An app designed to expose a person to nearby persons isn't private? Who'd have thunk it?

    Isn't that the definition of not private to begin with?

  • by Narcocide ( 102829 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2016 @04:48PM (#51848927) Homepage

    I've looked into lots of these APIs myself, as well as their license agreements for the developer accounts required to use them. Twitter and Facebook's aren't any more capable of protecting user data from being harvested by app creators. The privacy of your friend's list and its spidery web of interconnects to other site users is protected by the honor system only.

  • But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2016 @06:06PM (#51849301) Homepage Journal
    But Grindr is still OK, right?

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