Tinder

Is Tinder safe?

Tinder is safer than it was, but it is still a place where you will meet strangers, and some of them will be scammers. Since 2025 Tinder has required many new users to record a Face Check video selfie, which it says has cut exposure to potential bad actors by more than 60%. Its privacy is weak, though. The app shares identifiers for ad tracking, holds sensitive data, and Ireland's regulator has proposed a GDPRGDPRThe EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which sets rules on how organisations collect and use personal data and allows large fines.More in the glossary fine. We score it 50/100.

Romance scams are the main risk

Dating apps are one of the main ways romance scammers find victims. In 2022, nearly 70,000 Americans reported a romance scam to the FTC, with reported losses of $1.3 billion. Of those who lost money, 19% said the contact began on a dating website or app, and 40% on social media.

The scripts are familiar:

• The faraway partner. A soldier on a base overseas or an oil rig worker who cannot meet or video call, and then needs money for leave, a flight or a medical bill.
• The investor. A successful match who offers to teach you crypto trading on a site they control. Every "profit" is fake and withdrawals never work. Losses often run into tens of thousands.
• The parcel. A valuable gift is stuck in customs and needs a fee.
• Sextortion. A match moves to another app, swaps intimate images and then threatens to share them unless paid.

Most of these begin by moving the chat off Tinder, to WhatsApp, Telegram or Snapchat, where Tinder's scam detection cannot see them.

Face Check and verification

Face Check asks new users to record a short video selfie, which Tinder compares with their profile photos. Match Group says it launched in 2025, and it now applies to new users in the US, Canada, Australia, India and parts of Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. On 25 March 2026 Tinder made it mandatory for new users in the UK. Tinder says it has reduced related user reports by more than 40%.

It is a real improvement against fake profiles built from stolen photos. It does nothing about real people with bad intentions. Match Group's annual report for 2025 says it is defending lawsuits in Colorado and Texas brought by plaintiffs who allege harm by other users they met through its services.

What Tinder knows about you

A dating profile is sensitive by nature. It can reveal sexual orientation, relationship status, religion and where you live and go. Apple's privacy label for Tinder lists identifiers as used to track you across other companies' apps and websites, and links purchases, precise and coarse location, contact info, your phone contacts, photos and videos, advertising data and "sensitive info" to your identity. Messages are not 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.

Regulators have looked at how Tinder handles that data. Ireland's Data Protection Commission opened an inquiry on 3 February 2020 into how Tinder handles requests to access and delete data and how long it keeps it. In January 2024 it sent Match a preliminary draft decision alleging violations, and on 9 July 2026 it issued a draft decision with a proposed fine of €8 million to €11 million. Match set aside $9.1 million for it and says it has strong defences. Under GDPRGDPRThe EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which sets rules on how organisations collect and use personal data and allows large fines.More in the glossary, other EU regulators can comment before the decision becomes final.

In the Netherlands, a privacy foundation, Stichting Take Back Your Privacy, filed a class action in Amsterdam in December 2024 on behalf of Dutch Tinder users since 2018. It alleges Tinder collected, used and shared personal data without proper consent. In May 2026 the court accepted jurisdiction over the consumer-law claims; it had not yet ruled on the GDPR claims. These are allegations that Match denies.

In the US, Match Group settled a 2019 FTC lawsuit in 2025 for $14 million. The FTC had accused it of deceptive advertising and subscription practices, including a "guarantee" of a free extra subscription with conditions it did not clearly disclose. A separate FTC investigation into how OkCupid, another Match brand, shared user photos and data in 2014 ended in a settlement approved by a federal court on 30 April 2026: some Match subsidiaries agreed not to misrepresent their privacy practices, under FTC monitoring.

Tinder also paid $60.5 million to settle Candelore v. Tinder, a California class action over charging users aged 29 and over more for Tinder Plus and Gold than younger users. The court gave final approval on 5 June 2026.

How to date more safely

1. Complete Face Check or photo verification yourself, and favour matches who have the badge.
2. Keep the conversation in Tinder until you have met on video. Report anyone who pushes to move apps quickly.
3. Video call before meeting. Scammers avoid live video.
4. Never send money, gift cards or crypto to someone you have not met, whatever the story.
5. Do not share your surname, workplace or home address in your profile, and turn off location sharing in other apps your match can see.
6. Meet in a public place, arrange your own transport and tell a friend where you are.
7. Use the contact-blocking option in settings if you do not want people in your phone book to see you.

How we scored it

Scams and harmful content (45) and privacy (38) are the weakest factors: dating apps attract fraud, and Tinder shares identifiers for advertising while holding sensitive data. Security (58) is middling with no major breach found, and the regulatory record (50) reflects the $14 million FTC settlement, the proposed Irish fine and the age-pricing settlement. Instagram is the other big source of romance scam contacts.