Home International Tinder will soon let you run background checks on your potential dates

Tinder will soon let you run background checks on your potential dates

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Tinder is introducing an in-app background check, allowing users in the US to view public records information of potential dates using their name or phone number.

File picture: AP

Tinder is introducing an in-app background check.

Later in 2021, the dating app will let users in the US view public records information of potential dates using their name or phone number.

Match Group – which owns Tinder as well as PlentyOfFish, Hinge and OKCupid – is planning to roll out the feature across all platforms at a later date.

The company’s Head of Safety and Social Advocacy Tracey Breeden said: “We recognise corporations can play a key role in helping remove those barriers with technology and true collaboration rooted in action.”

For the new paid service, Match has teamed up with background checking platform Garbo.

It’s noted that the checks won’t include drug charges or traffic violations.

In a blog post last month, Garbo wrote: “The research continues to show that there is no link between drug possession and gender-based violence.”

After a 2019 investigation by ProPublica discovered registered sex offenders on many of Match Group’s free platforms, 11 members of Congress called on the company’s president Shar Dubey to “take swift action to reduce the risk of sexual and dating violence against their users”.

If a user reports information about someone’s violent past, the account in question is removed, while apps such as Tinder and competitor Bumble have added tools including photo verification and in-app video calls.

And in January last year, Tinder added a panic button to store details about a date – which includes location data – which would alert emergency services if the button was pressed.

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