Tinder To Get Background Checks For Safer Online Dating, But What About Privacy?

While it may be controversial, online dating is definitely convenient. While guys struggle to get right-swiped, girls are surrounded by creepy dudes and the fear to meet the person outside of a chat window is scary to a whole different level.

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However, to make this a lot safer for men as well as women, Tinder and other Match-group owned apps could soon allow you to run background checks on the possible dates.

This came right after Match Group made an announcement that they¡¯re going to invest in a non-profit company dubbed Garbo that allows people to run background checks on people using just their names and phone number.

Even though Match group didn¡¯t really reveal the amount of money they¡¯ve invested in the non-profit organisation, they did announce that the background verification feature will first be arriving on its popular dating app, Tinder.

But what about privacy?

Privacy is little by little turning into an illusion for many of us, with all internet services taking in all kinds of user data and using it against us -- just like Facebook and Cambridge Analytica fiasco. Garbo and Tinder say their case is different, though.

Tinder users will be able to look-up their dates with information like their arrest record, history of violence etc. However, all this will be based on the data that¡¯s openly available for everyone. Garbo highlights that it makes use of public records and reports of violence or abuse which also includes arrests, convictions, restraining orders, harassments and other violent crimes. It also accepts manually submitted police reports, orders of protection, restraining orders and other legal documents that report abuse, harassment and other crimes.

It also highlights that it won¡¯t publicise drug possession charges or traffic violations with an idea to take an ¡°active stance towards equity¡± and since these disproportionately affect minority groups.

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It won¡¯t be free (presumably)

Even though it seems like a really impressive feature that most of us can¡¯t wait to try out, it doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯ll be free. The feature is still in the works and even though Match group has shared that it is working with Garbo to make sure the feature isn¡¯t cost-prohibitive, they haven¡¯t officially unveiled any pricing tiers or plans.

The feature will begin testing in the coming months and is expected to roll out to everyone by the end of this year.