Good morning & welcome to this #ValentinesDay2020 tweet thread of the sketchiest things I found in the Terms of Service & Privacy Practices of your favorite dating app.
(if your favorite dating app is Tinder, Bumble, Grindr, Okcupid, or lord help you Ashley Madison) (1/)
(if your favorite dating app is Tinder, Bumble, Grindr, Okcupid, or lord help you Ashley Madison) (1/)
Unsurprising Discovery 1: All of them have arbitration agreements. Sign up and you waive your right to have your case heard before a judge and jury. You also can’t join together with a bunch of wronged users in a class action lawsuit against them – any of them. (2/) 
(Tinder in particular appears to only have added this fine print after a court case in CA where users sued the app for an ageist policy that charged higher premium account prices for the 30+ crowd) (3/)
(And if you do somehow manage to sue Tinder in a real court of law, you’re going specifically getting your justice in the county of Dallas, TX and no where else) (4/)
(But, uh, speaking of ageist pricing policies, what’s going on here, Bumble?) (5/)
Unsurprising Discovery 2: All of them collect your data. All of them. (6/)
They all know your location (7/ )
They all collect and store your messages (8/ )
The moment you click “allow access to camera and photo library,” they have access to *all* of the pics/vids in your photo library. (9/)
And even living in another country with better privacy protections than the U.S. won’t save you (10/)
(And WTF Tinder & Grindr why do you need access to my phone’s compass, barometer and gyroscope? Also since when does my phone have a gyroscope?) (11/ )
Unsurprising Discovery 3: All of them share your data. All of them. (12/ )
Sometimes they do it with big data (13/ )
Sometimes they do it with third-party service providers (14/ )
Sometimes they do it with consultants (15/ )
And they absolutely all do it with advertisers (16/ )
Use Tinder, Okcupid, Match dot com, Plenty of Fish or whatever the hell LoveScout24 or Twoo are? They’re all owned by the same company operating 11 distinct sites. Use one, and all those companies can have your data! (17/ )
Bumble, Grindr or ASHLEY MADISON get sold to another company? Now that company owns your data! (18/ )
But data-sharing is a two-way street, friends. Set up an account through Facebook or Google? Dating app gets that data. Grindr - if not others - appear to be able to get your *payment info* from third-party sources. (19/)
Kind of Surprising Discovery 4: You can write your Terms of Service as if all of your users are too stupid or disinterested to possibly care about any of this, a la Bumble. (20/ )
Actually Surprising Discovery 5: There’s enough demand to link an OkCupid account with LinkedIn that they included that social media plugin in their Privacy Practices? idk (21/ )
Unsurprising Discovery 6: Deleting your account doesn’t mean you’re home free. (22/ )
Grindr can keep your data for up to 120 days after you delete your account – including the photos you send in private chats. (23/ )
And obviously deleting an account is no match for the power of automatic subscription payments. (24/ )
Unsurprising Discovery 7: If you get a virus from these apps and it effs up your computer or phone, you’re on your own. (25/ )
Super Unsurprising Discovery 8: Grindr will not pay you for any of the helpful feedback you provide them. (But I really want someone to try) (26/ )
Unsurprising Discovery 9: All of these sites reserve the right to change their Terms of Service at any time – and not notify you. (27/ )
After all this, I invite you to celebrate #ValentinesDay2020 by doing what I’m doing: deleting every dating app I’ve ever had, then deleting every other app I’ve ever had, throwing my phone under a moving train, & relocating somewhere remote to live off the land. (28/ )
(disclaimer: i am by no stretch a lawyer – just a humble hobbyist watchdog who probably has insomnia & an awful taste in fun. don’t submit me as evidence at your closed-door arbitration case or hearing in and only in Dallas County) (end/)
