We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. A group of researchers has released a data set on nearly 70, users of the online dating site OkCupid. The data dump breaks the cardinal rule of social science research ethics: It took identifiable personal data without permission. The information — while publicly available to OkCupid users — was collected by Danish researchers who never contacted OkCupid or its clientele about using it. The data, collected from November to March , includes user names, ages, gender, religion, and personality traits, as well as answers to the personal questions the site asks to help match potential mates. The users hail from a few dozen countries around the world. Kirkegaard, the lead author, is a graduate student at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Grindr and OkCupid among dating apps handing data to ‘out of control’ adtech

Bobby Allyn. Dating apps, including Tinder, give sensitive information about users to marketing companies, according to a Norwegian study released Tuesday. A group of civil rights and consumer groups is urging federal and state regulators to examine a number of mobile apps, including popular dating apps Grindr, Tinder and OKCupid for allegedly sharing personal information with advertising companies. The push by the privacy rights coalition follows a report published on Tuesday by the Norwegian Consumer Council that found 10 apps collect sensitive information including a user’s exact location, sexual orientation, religious and political beliefs, drug use and other information and then transmit the personal data to at least different third-party companies.

‘Dating Big Data: OkCupid’s OkTrends’. In: Love’s Archive. Arts University Bournemouth, United Kingdom March [Conference or Workshop Item].

Rosamond, Emily. In: Love’s Archive. Undoubtedly, online dating sites have profoundly changed personal lives. At times, they have accelerated serendipity, bringing together two people who will fall in love. Yet, as exemplars of a meeting point between intimate, personal lives and the algorithmic gaze of big data analytics, these platforms also speak to a profound rearrangement in the relations between private lives and privatized interests.

How can one best articulate this shift?

OkCupid: Hackers want your data, not a relationship

Unbeknownst to their users, several popular dating apps, including Tinder, OkCupid and Grindr, share detailed personal data on their users with third parties for advertising purposes, a study conducted by the Norwegian Consumer Council has found. The details spanned the gamut and included location, age, gender, as well as, in some cases, sexual orientation, drug use, and religious and political views. The study examined a total of 10 apps, including popular menstrual health apps such as Clue and MyDays.

All the apps were recorded transmitting user data to at least different third parties.

Quantifying your desires – OKC uses data better than anybody else in the dating game. “We use math to find you dates.” — OKCupid. While the NSA uses big.

Dating apps including Grindr, OkCupid and Tinder leak personal information to advertising tech companies in possible violation of European data privacy laws, a Norwegian consumer group said in a report Tuesday. The council, a government-funded nonprofit group, commissioned cybersecurity company Mnemonic to study 10 Android mobile apps.

It found that the apps sent user data to at least different third party services involved in advertising or behavioral profiling. It said the majority of the apps did not present users with legally-compliant consent mechanisms. Period tracker app MyDays and virtual makeup app Perfect were also among the apps sharing personal data with ad services, the report said. The company said it considers the practice in line with all European and U.

The U. The FTC confirmed it received the letter but declined to comment further. The creators of the MyDays, Perfect and Grindr apps did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Click here to join our channel indianexpress and stay updated with the latest headlines. Top news. Home Technology Tech Dating apps like Tinder, OkCupid leak personal data: Norwegian consumer council Dating apps like Tinder, OkCupid leak personal data: Norwegian consumer council The council, a government-funded nonprofit group, commissioned cybersecurity company Mnemonic to study 10 Android mobile apps.

By: AP Updated: January 15, am.

Study finds Grindr, OKCupid and Tinder sharing sensitive data (updated)

This digital onslaught of dating sites and apps has led to increased industrial competition and the risk of an oversaturated market. At present, OKC boasts more than 3. And in this analytical department, OKC remains a pioneer. Started in by four Harvard math majors, OKC is striking, a data-driven brand.

The whole purpose of this blog is to analyze OkCupid’s data, and without a little However, most online dating sites are used by guys trying to get their rocks off.

Ten popular apps, including dating apps like Tinder, OKCupid and Grindr, have been found sharing people’s personal information with dozens of digital marketing and ad tech companies without users’ knowledge, according to a new study. The only way for many users to protect their information, the study conducted by the Norwegian Consumer Council NCC says, is for them to have never installed the apps at all. The study took into consideration the activity of 10 popular apps during the period June to November in order to identify how personal data is transmitted from these apps to commercial third parties.

The apps were chosen for the study as they were the most popular apps on Google Play at the time in “certain categories where sensitive category personal data were deemed likely to be processed, such as data about health, religion, children, and sexual preferences”. Only the Android versions of these apps were tested, with NCC explaining that this was due to Android being the largest mobile operating system worldwide, in addition to Google being a key player in the ad tech industry, the report added.

Follow Us On. Image for representation. The study was conducted by the Norwegian Consumer Council, and has found that the data may have been shared without explicit user consent.

Coronavirus: Online dating has seen a surge in activity in India since the lockdown

We want to help you make your profile picture as interesting and engaging as the rest of your profile. To find out what makes a good profile picture on OkCupid we collected , example user pictures, paired them up and asked people to make snap judgments, like so:. We collated these millions of judgments with the time of day each picture was taken, what the shutter speed was, and so on.

OkCupid has come under fire from the Norwegian Consumer Council for sharing personal data of their users with third parties like advertisers.

When asked whether the researchers attempted to anonymize the dataset, Aarhus University graduate student Emil O. Data is already public. Some may object to the ethics of gathering and releasing this data. However, all the data found in the dataset are or were already publicly available, so releasing this dataset merely presents it in a more useful form.

The most important, and often least understood, concern is that even if someone knowingly shares a single piece of information, big data analysis can publicize and amplify it in a way the person never intended or agreed. Michael Zimmer, PhD, is a privacy and Internet ethics scholar. In each of these cases, researchers hoped to advance our understanding of a phenomenon by making publicly available large datasets of user information they considered already in the public domain.

Many of the basic requirements of research ethics—protecting the privacy of subjects, obtaining informed consent, maintaining the confidentiality of any data collected, minimizing harm—are not sufficiently addressed in this scenario. Since OkCupid users have the option to restrict the visibility of their profiles to logged-in users only, it is likely the researchers collected—and subsequently released—profiles that were intended to not be publicly viewable.

The final methodology used to access the data is not fully explained in the article, and the question of whether the researchers respected the privacy intentions of 70, people who used OkCupid remains unanswered. I contacted Kirkegaard with a set of questions to clarify the methods used to gather this dataset, since internet research ethics is my area of study. While he replied, so far he has refused to answer my questions or engage in a meaningful discussion he is currently at a conference in London.

Numerous posts interrogating the ethical dimensions of the research methodology have been removed from the OpenPsych.

How to Take the Best Profile Picture

Some of the most popular dating apps have been accused of playing fast and loose with particularly sensitive data. The Norwegian Consumer Council has published a report accusing Grindr, OKCupid and Tinder of spreading various degrees of information about GPS location, sexuality and other personal information in irresponsible ways. While Grindr has vowed not to share HIV statuses and some sexual gropu identification with ad partners, it transmits user tracking info and the app’s name to over a dozen companies, effectively identifying users as LGBT.

OKCupid even sent data on drug use, ethnicity and political views to the analytics firm Braze. The report also accused ad tech companies of generally serving as go-betweens, particularly Twitter’s MoPub. They, in turn, reserve rights to share that info to a wide variety of companies.

okcupid-dating. Something-something looking at dating data. To-Do. Include all models to have an age range metric. Let’s not be creepy here guys.

If you need a different quality file please download individually. Pinterest LinkedIn E-Mail. Conceived in when f our friends from Harvard create d the first free online dating site , i t claims that over 91 m illion connections are made through it annually , 50K dates made every week and in it became the first major dating site to create a mobile a pp. Dating apps allow a comfortable, accessible and immediate connection with others using the app.

By sharing personal preferences in any area, and using the app’s sophisticated algorithm, it collects users to like-minded people who can immediately start communicat ing via instant messaging. Of course, t hese detailed personal profiles are not just of interest to potential love matches. As our researchers have uncovered vulnerabilities in other popular social media platforms and apps, we decided to look into the OkCupid app and see if we could find anything that matched our interests.

And we found several things that led us into a deeper relationship purely professional, of course.

The Big Lies People Tell In Online Dating

Other apps, including popular dating apps Tinder and OkCupid, share similar user information, the group said. Twitter Inc. Match Group Inc.

Check Point researchers discovered major security vulnerabilities on popular OkCupid dating app. According to researchers Alon Boxiner and.

Please refresh the page and retry. D ating apps have been accused of sending sensitive personal information to advertisers in a potential breach of European data laws. The data was sent to multiple advertising companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter, as well as handful of lesser-known firms. Grindr was singled out for criticism for sending precise location data and other information to a wide range of advertising networks, which are then used to direct adverts at internet users.

And Facebook is embedded in most of the apps we researched as well, corresponding with research conducted by many others pic. I n turn, those networks may then share the data with hundreds more. T witter said it had suspended Grindr from MoPub, its network that places adverts on smartphone apps, and that it was investigating the matter. The researchers said they examined 10 Android apps, which were found transmitting data to at least third parties.

Grindr said it had not examined the report but that it laid out its data practices in its privacy policy. The Match Group, the dating giant that owns OkCupid and Tinder, said it only shared data that was necessary to provide its services. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.

The OkCupid Blog

Subscriber Account active since. He founded OKCupid in with some friends whom he met while attending Harvard University, where he had started SparkNotes , a study-guide company. Yagan later went on to become the CEO of Match. When he was starting OKCupid, Yagan said he and his friends were looking for a different solution to online dating, one that used mathematics and substantive data to predict compatibility.

As such, Yagan and his business partners designed a website with a question-and-answer-based system to help people determine whom to date. Yagan is currently taking a break from the online dating business as the CEO of ShopRunner , a service that partners with various retailers to provide free two-day shipping.

“Rudder is the co-founder of the dating site OKCupid and the data scientist behind its now-legendary trend analyses, but he is also — as it becomes immediately.

Google DoubleClick was receiving data from eight apps tested, while Facebook was receiving data from nine. A Norwegian investigation has claimed that the online advertising industry is “out of control” in the latest warning about how user data is used and shared with brands. MoPub was used as a mediator for much of this data sharing and was observed passing personal data to a number of other advertising third parties, including AppNexus and OpenX, the report said.

Meanwhile, another dating app, OkCupid, shared highly personal data about sexuality, drug use, political views and more with customer engagement platform Braze, the report said. She added: “Our customers collect data from users of their apps, and we contractually require them to comply with the law by posting privacy policies and Terms of Use in connection with those apps. Customers then use Braze to create better customer experiences based on user preferences.

All of our customers decide what data is sent to Braze. We do not sell personal data.

How OKCupid Remains An Online Dating Powerhouse

Results explored in this document include the demographics of sex, age, income, religiosity, drinking, and ethnicity of OkCupid users and, as a specific analysis, the correlation of drinking habits to religiosity, income, sex and age. The data set consists of user profile data for 59, San Francisco OkCupid users a free online dating website from June The data are describded in the paper: Albert Y. Kim, Adriana Escobedo-Land

A group of researchers has released a data set on nearly users of the online dating site OkCupid. The data dump breaks the cardinal rule of social.

Security researchers identified multiple vulnerabilities on the Web and mobile platforms of online dating site OkCupid that could have allowed hackers to steal user private data of users. The data could include full profile details, private messages, sexual orientation, personal addresses, and even all submitted answers to OkCupid’s profiling questions. The team at OkCupid is claimed to have fixed the flaws within 48 hours of receiving their details.

It has also stated that the vulnerabilities haven’t impacted any of its users. Researchers at Check Point Research disclosed the vulnerabilities in OkCupid that could have allowed hackers to gain user data access. The research work took place through the OkCupid Android app version While testing the mobile app, the researchers’ team was also able to find the OkCupid primary domain vulnerable to cross-site scripting XSS attacks.

Both those loopholes could be combined to let a hacker send specially crafted links to users and steal their personal data.

In Online Dating, Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist