Project:Dating Privacy
Description
"Dating Data" is a collective contributing to take control of personal data and to data literacy in a secured and ethical manner for end users and research purposes.
It is comprised of members coming from different countries, disciplines (mathematics, sociology, journalism, law, physics) and foreparts (academia, private, independent, citizen NGO).
Meetings online at https://epfl.meet.switch.ch/dating-data
Every first Wednesday of the month at 20h15
Meeting Notes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Co_ccRQf1tidcZpO2MVcvWCVnvaR0fCEEW2IPLpZ-q4/edit?usp=drivesdk
Drive https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UvDaW8ZN0LeKMPRCCuiNTDkV6QLx8tq8
Objectives
- Implement tools that allow users to request and analyse their data
- Find and ask for SAR with a concrete example and cooperate with communities in order to 1 increase the impact 2 relay the info
- Enrich the wiki with data structures extracted from the SARs
- Develop methodologies that allow for research without dependency on commercial platforms
- Formalize the working group and project with an official legal entity
Problematic Proposals
- Sharing personal data with third parties which is not necessary for the app functioning. The Grindr case study. Check third-parties that are the biggest players
- Sexual harassment
- Scams, phishing, fake profiles
- Users are affected by malicious behaviours 1 and 2 so how are dating apps moderating this and protecting users via the analysis of their personal data?
- Between 10-20% of users find a partner in France, Switzerland and United States. Do users really get the outcomes they want from the app in exchange for providing their data?
- Subscription rates changing according to user demographic characteristics (ex. Tinder)
More info in this doc https://tinyurl.com/goaldatingdata
Participants
Pidoux
Podehaye
Genferei
Frandrews
HermineL
TO DO / On going
Map the ecosystem
How many apps are available? Maybe be restricted to Europe.
- Digital methods project "Mapping data ecologies of the dating industry" https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1n-p_efBmkK2v1KGCbHyHb_csmR6D7KN8SX3qron9Cn4/edit
- Tools to sample how many apps are in the Google and Play stores:
"Google Play Store Scraper" is a simple tool to extract the details of individual apps, collect their related apps, retrieve app permissions, and retrieve a list of apps for a given keyword.
"iTunes App Store Scraper"
https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolDatabase
Permissions per app via Exodus
List apps per ranking, add ranking to every app following the table in the google doc
Archive Privacy policies
Add link to privacy policy
Defining the project scope
Dating apps' list
- Wiki
-->list of dating apps available on this wiki
- Wikidata https://wikidata.org
-->list of dating apps available on wikidata
List of apps per downloads
Privacy Policies
links can be found in the wiki
maybe this is useful: Princeton-Leuven Longitudinal Corpus of Privacy Policies. Front-end here: https://privacypolicies.cs.princeton.edu/ghfront/ and the repository here: https://github.com/citp/privacy-policy-historical
Partners/third parties
“Out Of Control” – A Review Of Data Sharing By Popular Mobile Apps published in January 2020
see Technical report https://fil.forbrukerradet.no/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mnemonic-security-test-report-v1.0.pdf
report https://fil.forbrukerradet.no/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-14-out-of-control-final-version.pdf
Complaint letters https://www.forbrukerradet.no/side/complaints-against-grindr-and-five-third-party-companies/
LUMAscape https://www.okanjo.com/blog/2016/12/14/ssp-dsp-dmp-rtb-wtf
Patents
List of Match Group patents: https://policies.tinder.com/intellectual-property/intl/en
Tinder Patents:
number={US20160154569 A1}, author = {Rad, Sean and Carrico, Todd M. and Hoskins, Kenneth B and Stone, James C.}, url = {https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?II=0&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=20160602&CC=US&NR=2016154569A1&KC=A1#}, title = {Matching Process System And Method},
number={US9733811B2}, author = {Carrico, Todd M. and Hoskins, Kenneth B and Rad, Sean and Stone, James C. and Badeen, Jonathan}, url = {https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/050234419/publication/US10203854B2?q=pn\%3DUS10203854B2}, title = {Matching Process System And Method},
Match Group SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USER COMMUNICATION IN A NETWORK https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=2020137019A1&KC=A1&FT=D&DB=en.worldwide.espacenet.com&locale=en_EP&date=20200430&rss=true#
Hinge: Brevet publié en 2013 puis abandonné, jamais délivré. https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=2013066972A1&KC=A1&FT=D&ND=3&date=20130314&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP#
Media
- June 2020, "Exclusive: Winning bidder for Grindr has ties to Chinese owner" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-grindr-m-a-sanvicente-exclusive-idUSKBN2391AI
- 2021, ""Grindr" to be fined almost € 10 Mio over GDPR complaint. The Gay Dating App was illegally sharing sensitive data of millions of users." https://noyb.eu/en/gay-dating-app-grindr-be-fined-almost-eu-10-mio
- 2016, "What Tinder and Halo Have in Common" https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/01/how-tinder-matchmaking-is-like-warcraft/424350/
- Top iOS dating apps are exposing your personal life to hackers https://www.wired.co.uk/article/the-dating-apps-exposing-your-personal-life-to-hackers
- Investidating: why deep photo analysis has become part of online hook-ups https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/05/tinder-online-dating-apps-photos
- How algorithms on dating apps are contributing to racism in our love lives https://officialfamemagazine.com/2020/06/28/how-algorithms-on-dating-apps-are-contributing-to-racism-in-our-love-lives/
- Live streaming drives growth in chinese dating app momo (2017) https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/09/momo-live-streaming/
- Blinq dating app uses AI to judge hotness https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/11/blinq-dating-app-uses-ai-to-judge-hotness/
- Why we need a dating app that understands Nash’s equilibrium https://hackernoon.com/why-we-need-a-dating-app-that-understands-nashs-equilibrium-2dc4a862b47e
- Tinder Select: You’re Not Cool Enough To Get the Secret Version of Tinder https://fortune.com/2017/03/08/tinder-select-exclusive-members/
- Tinder Elo Score: https://www.fastcompany.com/3054871/whats-your-tinder-score-inside-the-apps-internal-ranking-system
- Irish Data Protection Commission: https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/data-protection-commission-launches-statutory-inquiry-mtch-technology-services-limited-tinder
- Tinder and GDPR Paul-Olivier D. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/27/tinder-data-privacy-tech-eu-general-data-protection-regulation
- Match Group financial report: https://s22.q4cdn.com/279430125/files/doc_financials/2020/q1/MTCH-1Q-2020-Earnings-Release_Final.pdf
- Gillette study on Tinder: https://web.archive.org/web/20150323010313/http://shavetest.com/
- https://youtu.be/HSYaRgKYeek
- https://www.esquire.com/style/grooming/a32478/women-on-tinder-dont-like-beards-020514/
- Data privacy "Five Reasons You Should Delete Hinge" https://bit.ly/2J8mKOo
- How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from dating apps like Mingle https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgqm5x/us-military-location-data-xmode-locate-x
- Video integration on Hinge "Seeking a Partner for the End of the World" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/style/cuffing-season.html
- Fake profiles in online dating "Online-Dating: Auf diesen Portalen flirten Fake-Profile" https://www.verbraucherzentrale.de/wissen/digitale-welt/onlinedienste/onlinedating-auf-diesen-portalen-flirten-fakeprofile-21848
- MENSTRUAPPS – How to turn your period into money (for others) https://chupadados.codingrights.org/en/menstruapps-como-transformar-sua-menstruacao-em-dinheiro-para-os-outros/
- "Tinder lance son chat vidéo. Quid de la modération ?" https://siecledigital.fr/2020/07/09/tinder-chat-video-moderation/
- "Après huit mois de retard, le service de rencontres de Facebook arrive en France" https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2020/10/22/apres-huit-mois-de-retard-le-service-de-rencontres-de-facebook-arrive-en-france_6056968_4408996.html
- "Tesla owners looking for love can now join a dating network exclusively for 'like-minded Elon stans'" https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-dating-app-owners-only-car-obsessed-elon-musk-stans-2020-8?r=US&IR=T
- "We do not believe in algorithms: Happn CEO" https://www.cnbc.com/video/2016/10/05/we-do-not-believe-in-algorithms-happn-ceo.html?__source=sharebar%7Clinkedin&par=sharebar
- Video documentary: How dating turns into business.... "Chat moderators" are employees with fake profiles replying 24/7 to users who pay per message and believe they are writing to "potential partners" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tttHVfn_joo&feature=share
- Judith Duportail article "I asked Tinder for my data. It sent me 800 pages of my deepest, darkest secrets" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/26/tinder-personal-data-dating-app-messages-hacked-sold?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=245390&subid=20455723&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
- Emmanuel Kessous, sociologue du numérique "La vie privée dans l'économie numérique. Une approche par les usages" https://www.slideshare.net/lpg/la-vie-prive-dans-lconomie-numrique-une-approche-par-les-usages
- Coffee Meets Bagel dating app "trying to end #ghosting" by showing user activity stats! http://engt.co/2ngTA2u
- How To Get A Match, According to Tinder’s Sociologist https://www.fastcompany.com/3062454/how-to-get-a-match-according-to-tinders-sociologist
- Intéressant car il existe aussi Pokémon GO Dating "« Pokémon Go » : les multiples facteurs des inégalités géographiques" https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2016/08/03/pokemon-go-les-multiples-facteurs-des-inegalites-geographiques_4977738_4408996.html
- Love at first swipe, What happens to your data when you look for love, Lunchtime conference of European Data Protection Supervisor trainees, Brussels, 12 February 2018 https://youtu.be/9XJWtFhtWd8
- How I [engineer] Decide Who Gets Banned on OkCupid https://www.thecut.com/2017/02/banned-from-okcupid-sexting-moderation.html
- OkCupid inferences: The 8 Personalities You’ll Meet When Dating in the U.S. https://theblog.okcupid.com/the-8-personalities-youll-meet-when-dating-in-the-u-s-9d87a5a40274#db60
- October 2, 2020, Tinder Is the Latest Social Media Battleground in Thai Protests https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/02/tinder-is-the-latest-social-media-battleground-in-thai-protests/
- July 17, 2017, Match Group appoints global head of privacy in Paris https://iapp.org/news/a/match-group-appoints-global-head-of-privacy-in-paris/
- April 6, 2020, Phone tracking is having a moment, but gay dating app Scruff wants no part of it https://www.protocol.com/scruff-rejects-selling-location-data
- Aug 11, 2020, Tinder slammed over mysterious premium pricing, transparency and data use concerns https://mashable.com/article/tinder-plus-different-prices-age-discrimination/?europe=true
Legal
Tinder Annual report: Tinder on-going accusations. The Irish DPC case, also prices can vary according to users' age https://s22.q4cdn.com/279430125/files/doc_financials/2019/ar/Match-Group-2019-Annual-Report.pdf
My GDPR Complaint Against Tinder https://forum.personaldata.io/t/my-gdpr-complaint-against-tinder/70
Data Protection Commission launches Statutory Inquiry into MTCH Technology Services Limited (Tinder) https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/news-media/latest-news/data-protection-commission-launches-statutory-inquiry-mtch-technology
Data leaks/scandals
Ashley Madison
Ashley Madison Leak No Big Deal? Think Again https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/priority-ashley-madison-leak-no-big-deal-think/
Les résultats de Grindr révélés grâce au scandale Ashley Madison "Grindr a eu des revenus résultant à la fois des abonnements et de la publicité de près de 16 millions de dollars en 2012" https://www.fugues.com/243577-article-les-resultats-de-grindr-reveles-grace-au-scandale-ashley-madison.html
OkCupid:
Here is a mirror for the OKCupid OSF Emil Kirkegaard dataset https://www.reddit.com/r/datasets/comments/4jj53i/here_is_a_mirror_for_the_okcupid_osf_emil/
Researchers Caused an Uproar By Publishing Data From 70,000 OkCupid Users https://fortune.com/2016/05/18/okcupid-data-research/
Controversy over OKCupid keynote at CHI 2018 https://www.reddit.com/r/sciences/comments/8edxm3/controversy_over_okcupid_keynote_at_chi_2018/
Grindr:
Données privées : le site de rencontres Grindr mis en cause https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2018/04/03/donnees-privees-le-site-de-rencontres-grindr-mis-en-cause_5279794_4408996.html
Lovoo
LOVOO’s CEO Benjamin Bak resigns https://inside.lovoo.com/en/lovoos-ceo-benjamin-bak-resigns-2/
happn
En détournant l’app Happn, un hacker peut tracer votre chemin en temps réel https://cyberguerre.numerama.com/5827-en-detournant-lapp-happn-un-hacker-peut-tracer-votre-chemin-en-temps-reel.html
References with databases
Rosenfeld, Michael J., Reuben J. Thomas, and Sonia Hausen. 2019 How Couples Meet and Stay Together 2017 fresh sample. [Computer files]. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Libraries.
The OKCupid dataset: A very large public dataset of dating site users https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-OKCupid-dataset-A-very-large-public-dataset-of-dating-site-users
- Full paper: https://web.archive.org/web/20200728135539/https://openpsych.net/files/papers/Kirkegaard_2016g.pdf
Surveys
Tinder usage statistics: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tinder-statistics/\#2
Pew Research Center (Feb 2020): The Virtues and Downsides of Online Dating. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2020/02/06/the-virtues-and-downsides-of-online-dating/
Swiss Federal Statistical Office (Nov 2019): Families and Generations Survey. Retrieved from https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/statistiques/population/enquetes/efg.assetdetail.10467789.html
INED France (2016) https://www.ined.fr/fr/publications/editions/population-et-societes/sites-rencontres-qui-y-trouve-son-conjoint/
Technical references
An Evidence‐based Forensic Taxonomy of Windows Phone Dating Apps https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1556-4029.13820
Privacy Risks in Mobile Dating Apps https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.02906
Technical report by mnemonic with the Norwegian consummer assoc showing data trading and GDPR compliance coded: https://fil.forbrukerradet.no/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mnemonic-security-test-report-v1.0.pdf
Tinder engineering blog: https://medium.com/tinder-engineering/
TinVec explanation by Tinder's lead engineer: https://youtu.be/j2rfLFYYdfM
Happn by exodus: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.ftw_and_co.happn/latest/
OkCupid engineering website: Evaluating Perceptual Image Hashes at OkCupid https://tech.okcupid.com/evaluating-perceptual-image-hashes-okcupid/
How OkCupid organizes its multi-page React app https://tech.okcupid.com/how-okcupid-organizes-its-multi-page-react-app/
Lovoo engineering: dotGo 2016: Go machine learning at large scale https://lovoodotblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/dotgo-2016-go-machine-learning-at-large-scale/
Lovoo github: https://github.com/lovoo
bbuzz 17: Anti-Spam and Machine learning at LOVOO
https://lovoodotblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/bbuzz-17-anti-spam-and-machine-learning-at-lovoo/
List of apps with SAR
App | Female | Male | Country |
---|---|---|---|
Adopteunmec | 1 | 0 | CH |
Badoo | 1 | 0 | CH |
Bumble | 1 | 0 | CH |
happn | 1 | 0 | CH |
HER | 1 | 0 | CH |
Once | 1 | 0 | CH |
Parship | 1 | 0 | CH |
PlanetRomeo | 0 | 1 | CH |
Scruff | 0 | 1 | CH |
Tinder | 1 | 1 | CH |