Month: January 2020

70k Tinder Photos of Women Just Got Dumped on a Cyber-Crime Forum

Posted on January 20, 2020

Tinder icon on mobile1GIZMODO – Jan 17 – Aaron DeVera, a member of New York City's task force on cyber sexual assault, said they discovered the images on a website known for trading in malicious software. The reason the photos were collected remains unclear, but their availability to cybercriminals has raised serious concerns that it may be used to commit illegal acts. Tinder said it would take whatever steps it could to have the data removed offline. Tinder noted that all of the photos are public and can be viewed by others through regular use of the app; although, obviously, the app is not designed to help a single person amass such a massive quantity of images. The app can also only be used to view the profiles of other users within 100 miles.

by Dell Cameron & Shoshana Wodinsky
See full article at Gizmondo

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Whitney Wolfe Herd Set out to Build a Safer Dating App for Women, But It’s Not Clear That She’s Made a Measurable Difference

Posted on January 20, 2020

Bumble whitney wolfe 2019BLOOMBERG – Jan 17 – ~1/3 of Bumble women had received lewd photos through texts or other social media. "There should be a law against flashing people online" Wolfe Herd said. She didn't have many political connections, but her husband did. Michael Herd is a family friend of Gaylord Hughey, an attorney who's one of Texas' top Republican fundraisers. Hughey called a lobbyist, the lobbyist got Democrats and Republicans to sponsor a bill, and in August, Governor Greg Abbott signed it into law. Now, anyone sending photos of "intimate parts" to someone in Texas without consent could be fined $500. This kind of attitude has distinguished Bumble from its rivals, along with it's focus on women. Bumble is the 2nd-most popular dating app in the U.S., behind Tinder. (81M users in 150 countries). The company has been profitable since 2017, and pulling in ~$10M a month in revenue. But, it seems to have no system in place to verify that its app is safer. In a survey of 4,500, 80% of women said Bumble users were more "respectful." 77% said they felt safer meeting someone on Bumble than on another app.

by Claire Suddath
See full article at Bloomberg

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The End Is Nigh for Cookies, and Larger Dating Companies Will Benefit

Posted on January 18, 2020

Google cookiesOPW – Jan 18 – Since 1994 Internet dating companies have been able to cookie users and more recently very effectively chase them around the web. But the Cookie Apocalypse us upon us. Google announced they are phasing out the use of 'invasive net trackers,' according to an article in Financial Times last Wednesday. After 25 years of use, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla have already banned them, and Google is laying the cookie to rest.

Of course, who is going to benefit from this the most? Google, Facebook and Amazon have already amassed a treasure trove of personalized data. They are effectively, 'sitting pretty.' Also, larger dating apps will become more entrenched as a consequence of this ban. Smaller apps and startups will be mired for a diminished ability to gather data and track, and a reduced ability to personalize their ad approaches and treatments.

Google will phase out cookies over the next two years. They, and others, are working on what might become the successor of the {beloved/maligned} cookie. – Mark Brooks, Host – IDEA.gp, CEO – Courtland Brooks

Chinese Soul App Focuses on Shared Values Rather Than Appearances

Posted on January 16, 2020

Soul app screenshotTECHNODE – Jan 16 – Shanghai-based Renyimen Technology launched Soul App in late 2016. While most dating apps let users browse a feed of profile pictures to find matches, Soul App employs a mix of personality and interest tests to sort users. It then uses machine learning to generate pools of members with similar values and interests for users to choose from. Users cannot see any personal information of others, besides their test match score and their public posts. Soul App closed a $60M Series C led by GGV Capital in Dec 2018. In January 2018, the company raised tens of million dollars in a Series B from DST Global, Genesis Capital, and Morningside Venture Capital. Soul App has ~10M monthly active users.

by Tony Xu
See full article at Technode

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com

Twitter Suspends Grindr From Its Ad Platform

Posted on January 15, 2020

Grindr logo 2018ADAGE – Jan 15 – Twitter says it suspended Grindr, the gay dating app, from its ad network after a report revealed privacy concerns with how the app shared personal data with marketing partners. The new report, commissioned by the Norwegian Consumer Council, alleged that Grindr transmitted personal information on its ~3M daily users worldwide to ad tech partners, including Twitter's MoPub, which is a mobile ad network that helps apps make money by filling their ad inventory. The report also names other advertising platforms OpenX and AppNexus, which help brands bid on ads through platforms like MoPub to appear on apps like Grindr. The report calls for a fines of Twitter, OpenX, AppNexus and Grindr. Under the GDPR, the maximum fine for a violation is up to 4% of annual revenue. In Twitter's case, that would amount to $120M, based on $3B revenue from 2018.

by Garett Sloane
See full article at AdAge

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Social and Communication Apps Continue to Hold Their Ground

Posted on January 15, 2020

Appannie logo 2020MEDIAPOST – Jan 15 – That's according to App Annie's latest State of Mobile report, which found that social and communication apps maintained a dominant 50% share of time spent among the world's mobile users in 2019. Relative to time spent with other app categories, that was only down by 6% since 2016. Social and communication apps also remain a hot commodity. In 2019, consumers downloaded 9.5B such apps, and spent 25% more time using them than they did in 2017. Worldwide app downloads totaled 204B in 2019, which was up by 45% since 2016, the app analytics firm found.

by Gavin O'Malley
See full article at Media Post

College Students Pay Tuition by Hooking up With Sugar Daddies and Mommas

Posted on January 15, 2020

Seekingarrangement logo 2017FOX BUSINESS – Jan 15 – ~4M students are looking for generous partners through dating site Seeking Arrangement to help pay for some or part of their school bills. Of that, 62%, or 2.48M, are students in the U.S, according to the company. The site recently released its list of schools nationwide with the largest growth in new profiles. The annual list has been published as millions of Americans owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. Students are the top profession of "sugar babies" and 30% of sugar babies use gifts from sugar daddies and mommies to pay for tuition and other school-related expenses. Georgia State University, University of Central Florida and the University of Alabama claimed the top three spots on SeekingArrangment Sugar University.

by Matthew McGrath
See full article at Yahoo Finance

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Credit Suisse Halts Work on Chinese Gay Dating App Blued’s IPO

Posted on January 14, 2020

Blued logoBLOOMBERG – Jan 13 – Credit Suisse Group AG has stopped working on the upcoming U.S. IPO of Chinese gay dating app Blued. Credit Suisse joins other investment firms, including Citigroup and Bank of America that in recent months have dropped off the U.S. debuts of high-profile Chinese companies. It wasn't clear why Credit Suisse dropped off Blued's IPO, but it did so before the company filed publicly. Founded in 2012 by former policeman Geng, Blued has become an icon for the Chinese LGBTQ community and attracted ~$130M in venture capital as of March last year. Besides providing dating services to 40M users, the app also offers live streaming and connects men who want to become parents with overseas surrogates. Blued has said it's eyeing an IPO ideally in the U.S., which offers a simpler process and deeper capital markets.

by Julia Fioretti & Lulu Yilun Chen
See full article at Bloomberg

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Grindr and OkCupid Spread Personal Details, Study Says

Posted on January 14, 2020

SafetyNEW YORK TIMES – Jan 13 – Popular dating services like Grindr, OkCupid and Tinder are spreading user information like dating choices and precise location to advertising and marketing companies in ways that may violate privacy laws, according to a new report released by the Norwegian Consumer Council, a government-funded nonprofit organization in Oslo. Grindr also sent a user's location to multiple companies, which may then share that data with many other businesses, the report said. OkCupid app sent a user's ethnicity and answers to personal profile questions to a firm that helps companies tailor marketing messages to users. OkCupid has recently posted a list of ~300 advertising and analytics "partners" with which it may share users' information. Tinder sent a user's gender and the gender the user was looking to date to two marketing firms. The Norwegian group said it filed complaints asking regulators in Oslo to investigate Grindr and five ad tech companies for possible violations of the European data protection law.

by Natasha Singer & Aaron Krolik
See full article at New York Times

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Microsoft Partners With The Meet Group on ‘Grooming Detection Technique’ for Messaging Apps

Posted on January 14, 2020

Themetgroup logoTECHNICAL.LY – Jan 13 – Microsoft has announced a new initiative called Project Artemis, a grooming detection technique it developed along with a handful of companies, including The Meet Group. The technique works with text-based conversations, and will scan, evaluate and "rate" conversation characteristics to determine if the language being used could be predatory. The rating will be sent to human moderators at participating companies for review, who can then identify threats and inform law enforcement. Project Artemis came out of a 2018 Microsoft hackathon which was sponsored by the WePROTECT Global Alliance and the Child Dignity Alliance. This new technology is the result of 14 months of cross-industry work from Microsoft, along with gaming and messaging app makers The Meet Group, Roblox, Kik and others to help identify potential instances of child online grooming for sexual purposes and to operationalize an effective response.

by Paige Gross
See full article at Technical.ly

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