Ways to protect your privacy and security with online dating apps | The TechTank Podcast

Online dating apps like Tinder collect a large amount of personal information on their users. Tinder’s privacy policy clearly states your data may be used to deliver “targeted advertising.” Even a step beyond that, the policy says “you should not expect that your personal information, chats, or other communications will always remain secure.” 

Your online data affects what job offers you have access to on LinkedIn, how much you pay for insuring your car, ads you will see on YouTube and if you can get approved for a loan.

The lack of a national privacy standard and the weakness of security guidelines leave many online daters with inadequate protections and creates regulatory uncertainty for the dating apps and websites themselves. So in the meantime, how can people using online dating apps protect their privacy and security?

In this episode, Darrell West, Caitlin Chin, and Mishaela Robison discuss the risks on dating apps and what can be done to improve personal safety.

You can listen to the episode and subscribe to the TechTank podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Acast.

TechTank is a biweekly podcast from Lawfare and The Brookings Institution exploring the most consequential technology issues of our time. From racial bias in algorithms to the future of work, TechTank takes big ideas and makes them accessible. In a series of roundtable discussions and interviews with technology experts and policymakers, moderators Dr. Nicol Turner Lee and Darrell West unpack tech policy debates and highlight new data, ideas, and policy solutions. Future episodes will explore the role of technology in election interference, disinformation campaigns, school reopening and broadband access, the digital divide and more. Sign up to receive the TechTank newsletter for more research and analysis from the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings.