Data Security On Online Dating Apps

Online dating is a phenomenon of the internet age that serves the purpose to render fun, entertainment, and delightful experiences to users while they meet individuals online and build relationships.

And when using an online dating application, hardly very few realize that these platforms come with their fair share of risks.

With technology budding with leaps and bounds, online dating applications are expected to handle the security and privacy concerns of user profiles in the most efficient way.

Moreover, the growing preference for personal choice in partner selection among the younger generation has resulted in an increased popularity and usage of dating apps. However, this trend also raises concerns regarding user data safety, associated risks, and exploitations prevelant in the web world.

Companies creating such apps try to implement best practices to safeguard their user data where developers keep strenuous care of individuals’ data to be protected from scams, phishing attacks, tricks, frauds, etc.

App Registration Via Social Media Accounts

Besides having a standard process to sign up and register for an account on a dating platform, reliable dating app companies have set up the option to enable users to link their social media accounts over the platform (most often Facebook) as a mandatory field.

Signing up with social accounts ensures profile authentication and verification and applies as an effective method to keep users alert and aware of any fake profiles to be encountered.

Social integration on dating portals and apps enables the security/administrative team to take instant appropriate actions on user profiles in case of any scams or abuse reports and helps them to mitigate risks and undesirable actions from occurring.

Restricted Access to Geolocation Services

Adding the information related to your locale, region, and location is what is necessarily asked by online dating apps to get you a refined and relevant list of users to find you a match.

Some applications allow users to manually set precise coordinates as per the location while some allow hiding the distance between you and other app participants. This is a transition being seen amongst major dating applications that are concerned about preventing illegal activities to be executed in the namesake of dating.

It is always recommended to users to change their location settings and never give access to location whenever asked by the app. While some app services are very accurate in calculating the user location, some never show the exact location of a user but give a nearby location on the app.

Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication is now a common way to keep user profiles protected and is being implemented within every online dating application now. During registration to verify your details, especially, phone numbers and emails, a cleartext/number password is sent.

This also ensures that the profiles that are being generated over the platforms are registered numbers that can be tracked in case of any issues and avoids profiles to be created with fake contact details.

While finalizing the passwords, apps always recommended setting a unique password that involves an alpha-numeric pattern as they are hard to crack.

Traffic Interception

This is solely related to data transmissions that occur within dating apps. Data transfers between the apps and servers (where user data is stored) have significantly improved over the years.

Most web dating platforms and portals have accommodated ways to use robust encryption techniques while sending/receiving information. Furthermore, they have implemented mechanisms against spoofing attacks where upon detecting a fake certificate, apps stop exchanging data with the server and show the user a warning message, thereby halting that action then and there.

Vulnerability Disclosure and Bug Bounty Programs

Paying more and more attention to data leaks and exploitations, several dating app companies have facilitated their developers to invest in bug bounty programs that aid to keep apps secure and protected.

These programs allow ethical hackers to scan and test the applications for detecting any flaws or vulnerabilities. The report is sent to the organization which then works with the team of ethical hackers to validate the existence of the errors found and patch them at the earliest.

Taking initiatives toward vulnerability disclosure and bug bounty programs companies have taken a step to strengthen their app security and deal with vulnerabilities and risks before they penetrate the system and incur unbearable losses.

Dating Apps are Here to Stay!

With the great adoption of the online dating trend, dating app development has witnessed a boom and will continue to grow more and more to deliver extraordinary experiences to the audience.

And with the transformations that occurred in technology, companies are trying hard to keep data security and privacy intact within dating apps, leveraging every segment of app safety, particularly on the technical side.

Fulfilling hopes and expectations for a future of building safe and secure digital connections, Pavo stands high on market demand and is all set to revolutionize the experience of remote dating. Safeguard your digital data with Pavo and enjoy building bonds with your matches.