EU Investigates Tinder’s Use Of User Data

Tinder, the popular dating service, is under investigation by the Ireland Data Protection Commission (DPC) over how it uses data from customers, including issues over its transparency and compliance with obligations related to subjects’ data rights requests.

Under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), EU citizens have rights related to their personal data and how it’s used. That includes the right to ask for their data to be deleted, for which they must have a valid legal basis.

The DPC said complaints about Tinder have come from numerous sources, including multiple EU countries, over whether or not the dating app has the right to continue processing user data in relation to compliance with requests from users. Some users have complained that Tinder doesn’t provide a copy of all the data it holds on them.

Tinder told reports that it is “fully cooperating” with the DPC’s investigation, saying that transparency and protecting users’ information are two of its primary priorities as a business.

The investigation comes amid the DPC’s investigation into Google’s handling of location data, which has been the subject of several complaints. In that investigation, the DPC will assess whether Google has valid reasons for scraping people’s location data, and whether the company meets its obligations with regards to transparency. A Google spokesperson said the company would be cooperating fully with the investigations.

Since Google’s European headquarters is located in Ireland, the DPC will supervise the investigation.

Tinder was one of the top apps in terms of downloads in 2019, according to statistics released by App Annie last December. It led the pack — along with other mainstays, such as Netflix, YouTube and Tencent Video — in a record number of 120 billion app downloads overall, on track for a steady 5 percent year-over-year increase.