Tinder to Introduce Background Checks to Make Online Dating Safer
Match has partnered with Garbo, a background checking platform
One of the most popular dating apps, Tinder, is planning to add a background check feature on its platform. This move is to ensure user safety at a time where online dating has been criticized. This feature would be tested and then launched in the US. Match Group, Tinder’s parent company, said that if successful, this feature would be launched on all the apps of the company like Hinge, OkCupid, or PlentyOfFish.
Details of this new Tinder feature
The Head of Safety and Social Advocacy at Tinder, Tracey Breeden, said: “We recognize corporations can play a key role in helping remove those barriers with technology and a true collaboration rooted in action.”
To make this feature a reality, Match has partnered with Garbo, a background checking platform. The company has also invested in a stake in Garbo. The background check company that was founded by women collects “public records and reports of violence or abuse, including arrests, convictions, restraining orders, harassment, and other violent crimes” for creating its reports.
As per current plans, the background checks will not include any traffic violations or drug charges. In a blog post this February, Garbo had stated, “The research continues to show that there is no link between drug possession and gender-based violence.”
User safety on dating sites was highlighted when an investigation done by ProPublica in 2019 stated that sex offenders were registered on many platforms of Match Group. As of now, if a user reports information about a person’s violent past to Tinder, the account of the offender is removed. In Jan last year, Tinder also added a panic button feature to ensure customer safety.
The testing of this new feature will begin in the US soon, and if successful, this feature would be incorporated on all Match Group platforms. There is no timeframe for the testing or rollout as of now, but this feature would likely be paid.
If you are new to planning to join Tinder or any other dating app, learn the texting rules and read about how to flirt before you try your luck.
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