Hinge

Is Hinge safe?

Hinge is a reasonable choice on privacy and a weaker one on what happens after someone is reported. Its App Store label lists only identifiers as data used to track you, which is lighter than Tinder or Bumble. But a 2025 investigation found that a Denver doctor reported to Hinge for rape in 2020 stayed on Match Group's apps until his arrest in 2023, and six women have since sued. We score Hinge 54/100.

Hinge belongs to Match Group, which also owns Tinder, OkCupid and Plenty of Fish. It had about 1.8 million paying users in 2025, up 18% in a year, according to Match Group's annual report.

What the Hinge lawsuit is about

In February 2025 The Markup, working with the Pulitzer Center and copublished by The Guardian and The 19th, reported on Stephen Matthews, a Denver cardiologist. A woman reported him to Hinge for rape in September 2020. Match Group received two more rape reports in January 2023, but he stayed on its apps until a police report led to his arrest about two months later. He was later sentenced to 158 years to life for crimes against 11 women, and at least 15 women said he had drugged or raped them.

The reporters also found that Match Group had tracked reports of drugging, assault and rape in an internal database since 2019, and that users banned from Tinder could often rejoin Tinder or another Match app with the same name, photos and birthday.

In December 2025 six women sued IAC, Match Group, Hinge, Tinder and Matthews in Denver District Court. They allege that Hinge banned Matthews but let him return under a new account, kept recommending him to women, and is a "defective product" because banned users can easily come back. These are allegations; the court has not ruled. Match Group said any report of sexual assault is "heartbreaking and deeply concerning" and that it is committed to strengthening its safety work.

Verification is still catching up

Tinder made its Face Check video selfie mandatory for new users in many countries in 2025. Hinge is behind. Match Group's 2025 annual report said it planned to bring Face Check to Hinge, and in February 2026 the company said testing would begin in Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Canada, with US tests from March. Match Group says interactions with bad actors fell by more than half on Tinder where Face Check runs.

Face Check makes it harder to run a fake profile with stolen photos. It does little against a real person with a real face who has been banned before, which is the problem the Colorado case is about, unless duplicate faces are blocked across accounts.

Romance scams on Hinge

Hinge's long-form profiles and prompts make it look less like a scammer's hunting ground, but the FTC's figures apply to every dating app. Americans reported $1.3 billion lost to romance scams in 2022, and 19% of those who lost money said it began on a dating site or app. The scripts are the same: a polished match who moves the chat to WhatsApp, cannot video call, and eventually talks about crypto trading or a sudden emergency.

What Hinge knows about you

A Hinge profile is detailed by design. Prompts, voice notes, photos, religion, politics, drinking habits and sexual orientation all sit on Match Group's servers. Apple's label links precise location, photos, purchases and "sensitive info" to your identity for analytics and personalisation. What sets Hinge apart is the advertising side: only identifiers are listed as used to track you, and there is no third-party advertising section on the label. Hinge does not say messages are end-to-end encryptedEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary, so assume Match Group can access them, for example when it reviews a report.

How to date on Hinge more safely

1. Complete selfie verification or Face Check when offered, and favour matches who have.
2. Video call in the app before meeting. Hinge has built-in video chat, so you do not need to share your number.
3. Keep chats on Hinge until you meet. A match who pushes to move apps quickly is a warning sign.
4. Search a match's name and photos before a first date. The Matthews case showed that bans do not always stick.
5. If someone harms you, report it to Hinge and to the police. A police report creates a record that a dating app cannot quietly lose.
6. Leave your surname, workplace and neighbourhood out of your prompts.
7. Never send money or crypto to someone you have not met in person.

How we scored it

Scams and harmful content (44) is the weakest factor because of the Colorado allegations and slow verification. Privacy (46) is better than at most dating apps, since the label shows limited tracking, but sensitive data is still linked to you. Security (58) and control (64) are middling, and the regulatory record (68) reflects no Hinge-specific fine. Compare Instagram, where many romance scams now start.