4 things you can do to protect your privacy on Tinder.

The Take Back Your Privacy Foundation has launched a class action against Tinder, among other things for privacy violations. For instance, did you know that in recent years, Tinder has been sharing users' sensitive data (including yours if you are on Tinder) with advertisers?

-> If you are on Tinder, you can sign up for our claim here. If we win the case, Tinder must stop violating your privacy, destroy all unlawfully collected data and pay damages to you.

While waiting for the court's verdict, you may want to keep using Tinder. That's why we’re sharing four tips to protect your own privacy on Tinder.

1. Don't give Tinder more info than you consider necessary for a good match.

In our investigation on which this lawsuit is based, we saw Tinder collecting more information than needed for a good match. With this information, Tinder builds a detailed profile of you, a.o. for the purpose of showing ads – which Tinder profits from. Until the court rules on our lawsuit, we assume that Tinder is still violating your privacy.

Tinder also appears to be reading along with your private chats in the Tinder app. Why Tinder does this and how it handles that information is not entirely clear to us, but either way there are plenty of reasons to be cautious, given the very personal nature of the conversations you typically have there.

So don't share information that:

• you feel like is too personal for Tinder to read along with, like certain things you might say in a private chat. You can always move the private conversation to another, safer chat environment;

• you think Tinder doesn't really need to make a good match for you;

• you don’t want to end up with other companies, like your religious beliefs, political affiliation or vaccination status. You, and not Tinder, should be the one who decides who this data is shared with.

2. Do not link your Tinder account with your other accounts, such as Instagram, Google or Spotify

Tinder asks a lot of information to create the most detailed profile of you. But Tinder is not the only data hungry player: for big tech companies like Instagram, Google and Spotify, data are also ‘the new gold’.

It is therefore obvious that Tinder, immediately when you create an account, asks if you want to link your Tinder account with other accounts you have, such as Instagram, Google or Spotify. The added value for you is limited - it is probably not very important to you that the linking means you don't have to upload the same photo twice for Tinder and Instagram (which, after all, is easy). But for the big tech companies, this link is incredibly valuable. Because how do these companies further increase profit? Exactly, by connecting all that data and by mapping you as a consumer as best they can for ads and other revenue models. If you want to protect your privacy, don't give them this opportunity!

3. Read the privacy policy

We realise that reading the privacy policy isn't easy: after all, one of the reasons we started the lawsuit is that Tinder (like many big tech players) deliberately makes its privacy policy vague, complicated and hard to read. Still, we recommend you take some time to read it carefully to get a better understanding of what Tinder does with your information.

Don't like what you read? Then you can always make your own choice whether or not to be on Tinder (or choose another dating app).

4. Contact Tinder's Data Protection Officer and use your privacy rights

If you look carefully - or just click on this link 😉 - you will read that you can contact Tinder with questions about the way it processes your personal data or about concerns you have about your security or privacy. If you have any doubts, or if you think something is just not okay, contact Tinder.

Another option is to make use of your privacy rights. For example, you can ask Tinder to see the data it collects from you. Although we know from our own investigation that Tinder is not always honest about what data it keeps, this could help you understand it better.

You can use this link to request a copy of your personal data. A few years ago, someone actually did this, and the results made big headlines. As it turned out, Tinder had 800 pages of very sensitive user information (see the article here: "I asked Tinder for my data. It sent me 800 pages of my deepest, darkest secrets"). If you are aware, you can do something about it!

More information on this so-called right of access and your other privacy rights (such as filing a complaint against Tinder) can also be found on the website of the Dutch Personal Data Authority.

Join us in standing up for your privacy!

These tips and the Tinder claim are an initiative of Take Back Your Privacy, a foundation that stands up for your privacy and consumer rights.

You can help us in our fight by sharing these tips and the Tinder claim with as many people as possible. Want to stay up to date on the claim and get further inspiration around online privacy? Then follow us on LinkedIn.

And are/were you on Tinder yourself? Then you can sign up for the claim here