Cyber expert warns of potential dating app risks

People looking for love are turning to dating apps which are growing increasingly popular with online dating experiencing a major boom especially after a year and a half of lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Dating apps like Tinder reached a record 3 billion swipes in a single day in March 2020, while OkCupid experienced a massive 700% increase in dates from March to May that same year.

Global cybersecurity company Kaspersky warns that while dating apps in 2021 are technically safer, threats of cyberstalking and doxing still loom.

Doxing is a cybercrime that involves someone’s private information being released online without their consent.

Kaspersky security expert Tatyana Shishkova said the shift to online dating created yet another area where users have to determine the best way for them to forge connections while protecting their security.

“What we’ve seen over the past few years is that dating apps are moving in the right direction keeping the data secure and letting users connect more safely.

“However, these apps still pose a significant risk when it comes to exposing too much personal information about users, leaving them vulnerable to threats like cyberstalking and doxing,” commented Shishkova.

Kaspersky researchers had conducted an in-depth study of nine popular dating apps with global user bases, such as Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, Mamba, Pure, Feeld, Her, Happn, and Badoo, to assess how safe they were.

The company replicated its research from 2017 into the dating app landscape to see what has improved and what hasn’t in terms of their security.

According to the study, in 2017 four of the apps made it possible to intercept data sent from the app, and many used the unencrypted HTTP protocol. In 2021 the situation has significantly improved. None of the apps studied use HTTP, and no data is sent if the protocol is not secure.

The study revealed that when compared to the 2017 study, dating apps have become safer from a technical standpoint, particularly when it comes to the transfer of data but still pose significant risk to users who expose too much of their personal information, leaving them vulnerable to threats including cyberstalking and doxing.

Shishkova pointed out that most dating apps allow users to register their account with one of their social networking sites such as Instagram, Facebook and Spotify. If the user chooses to do this, then their profile is automatically populated with information such as photos and profile information from that social networking site.

In addition, users are also invited to share information such as their place of work or university information. Depending on their privacy settings on those accounts, it is easy to find their social media accounts and a host of other personal information.  Access to data such as users’ location, place of work, name and contact information, leaves them vulnerable to cyberstalking or even physical stalking, as well as doxing.

Some apps, like Mamba, share the distance of users to the nearest meter. Happn has an additional functionality that lets users see how many times and in what locations their matches have crossed paths with them.

Mamba and Pure allow users to have their chats and photos shared without their permission, potentially for blackmail purposes or doxing.

Shishkova noted that the paid versions of many of the apps such as Mamba and Pure include additional choices that can enhance users’ security such as allowing users to manually specify their location or blur their photos.

Whereas, Happn offers users an “incognito mode” whereby users can hide their profile from those they haven’t swiped right on and strangers.

In the paid versions of Tindr and Bumble, users can manually choose their location to a specific region. Since only a region is available rather than a specific distance, it’s much harder to determine a user’s exact location.

“Hopefully, in the future, these options will be available in all apps for free. The best thing users can do to stay safe is to be careful about the data they are sharing about themselves, both on their dating profiles and in conversations,” added Shishkova.

To stay safe when using dating apps, Kaspersky experts recommend the following:

• Do not share too much personal information, such as last name, employer, photos with friends and political views in your profile.
• Do not tie other social media accounts to your profile.
• Select your location manually, if possible.
• Use two-factor authentication, if possible.
• Delete or hide your profile if you are no longer using the app.
• Use the built-in messenger in dating apps. It’s better to move to other messengers only if you trust your match. If you finally decide to do so, set up the chat in way that keeps your private info secured.
• Use a trusted security solution on your devices, such as Kaspersky Security Cloud, to detect any malicious or suspicious activity across your gadgets, as well as check the security of the URL that you’re visiting.