Dating platforms

What are dating platforms?

Dating platforms are pages or applications oriented to facilitate meeting and encounters with other people, sometimes with the purpose of finding a partner or engage into sexual encounters. Usually these services are databases that collect information from users through a profile that can contain personal data, images, locations. There are many types of dating platforms, and all have different interfaces and features. Some are free and others offer payment options which in some cases enlarge the possibility to view more profiles. Sometimes, the use of free platforms implies that users that no not provide a lot of personal data get restrained in their possibilities to view and access other profiles.

Broadly speaking these platforms are divided into two types: those that work through matching and those that focus on dating. "Matching" platforms seek to link profiles of users that are compatible, so they request a large amount of information about their preferences, customs, personal characteristics, hobbies, social status, etc. Platforms that concentrate on dating do not request so much personal and identity information because they focus more on the physical aspects and the immediate encounter between two persons. In both cases, platform's databases can be organized through users 'preferences (who choose other users) or algorithmically, based on the users' registered criteria.

There are platforms that work as web pages and others like mobile phone apps. Some even combine both options. The expansion of these platforms through mobile apps has been a supplement to the services previously offered through websites, and has made the interaction with those platforms (and their users) constant, emphasizing a lot in their geolocation.

Privacy policies of dating websites and apps

Privacy policies change and evolve over time! That is to say that when accepting the terms of use and privacy policies of a platform does not ensure that those remain always the same. It will be necessary to review these periodically as many platforms do not inform their users about changes in their policies. Unfortunately it is difficult to generalize with respect to the privacy policies of these platforms. Many platforms handle the users' personal information without encrypting it, so it can be easily retrieved by third parties. But even, in general, it is the same privacy policies that state that the information entered in the databases can be accessed by third parties.

Most of these platforms become proprietary of the images that are shared or upload, as well as the personal information that has been configured in the profile. This applies even once the account has been closed, so you have to be very sure about the data you want to share in these spaces since there seems to be no turning back. Finally, to be able to know each of the platforms in terms of its privacy policy, it would be important to run a textual cleaning exercise as the analysis of different social networks that has been achieved by the project lost in Small Print from My Shadow for the following platforms: Google, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and Whasapp.

Information requested by the platforms

Gender, sexual orientation and practices

Many of these platforms require to provide a gender option, genres that are often mutually exclusive (you can only be male or female). If it is oriented towards gays or lesbians, a gender identity is always requested, almost always offering only binary options. Many of these platforms are used for exchanges and contacts between LGTBI people, and since in many cases these practices are illegal, prohibited or would harm the user in case of becoming public information, data shared in these platforms is very sensitive. In general, gender and sexual choices are felt as sensitive information.

Images and avatars

Several dating platforms request photos (sometimes through profiles of other social networks, such as Facebook) as a participation requirement. Without sharing these images it will not be possible to access other profiles or to access the databases of contact. This also happens because many platforms use credentials such as Facebook to open a profile. In that sense, it is not clear how much information from the social network profile the meeting platforms can manage. Several of the apps incorporate much more information from Facebook than the user may have been informed when logging in the dating platform, information such as videos shared in other commercial platforms (such as Youtube or Vimeo), or pages that have been marked with likes. You can read more on the privacy risks on the mobile dating apps.

Geolocation

Many platforms, especially if they are applications for the mobile phone, ask about your location to allow the encounter with other people. This has its logic, as one of the objectives is to facilitate casual and immediate encounters, it is necessary to know who is near in real time and who can be around at the exact moment in which the app is consulted. Therefore, for severeal of these applications, users in some way depend on the distance being shown in relation to other profiles, but this is also what makes them potentially exposed to the risk of being located by someone with whom they had not planned a meeting. Despite of these risks, most users of these platforms based on casual and instant encounters share their real-time location on a daily basis with these apps. This could even allow to determine the user's physical address, track their movements and routine and enable to harass them during the day. Localization information along with other information commonly shared on these platforms such as height, weight, age, habits and customs may serve to locate potential victims.

All these data can be used both by "legal" surveillance (governments, police forces, judiciary among others), or for illegal and malicious purposes (crime, robbery, sexual assault among others). All the information obtained through these platforms could also be used for the purpose of extorting the user. You can read more information on these risks in the following article “Privacy Risks in Mobile Dating Apps”.

From the above we understand that the vulnerability of users when sharing their personal information in these platforms can easily expand to the physical terrain. Many apps allow you to detect the exact location from the triangulation of a profile (sometimes even when the exact geolocation option is turned off), making it easy to found and attack the person behind a specific profile.

You can read a comparative study of three mobile dating apps here.

Other data that can be extracted

Until now, we have referred to potential vulnerabilities driven by authorities or criminals,, however, most of the information of the users that circulates through these platforms can also be acceded by third parties for advertising purposes.

Because, the data is not encrypted in practically all of these platforms , third parties are able to access and collect information regarding user's device, its operating system, the applications is using, its location, its internet provider, and even sometimes its credit card details among others.

Besides that, because many dating platforms are linked to other applications and social networks causes third parties to cross databases in order to increase their knowledge about you air order to better know "what you need." An example could be the possible relationship between fertility and menstrual applications and dating applications. Through knowing your hormonal cycles, third parties could send you advertising information or "right" contacts for the time of the cycle in which you are.

On the other hand, it is possible that your information will be used to extort you. Platforms sometimes can not control what they make available. One example is when Tinder was sharing more information than they should, you an read about it here. There is also the Ashley Madison case where users got extorted in order to not publish their personal information and more specifically not publishing how they use that extra-matrimonial dating platform, you can read more here.

Borrar tu perfil

A pesar de que muchos servicios de este tipo ofrezcan la posibilidad de borrar tu perfil, no aseguran remover la información inmediatamente y muchas se la quedarán para siempre. En general las plataformas desplazan la responsabilidad en torno a la privacidad a las usuarias, ya que tampoco son muy claras en relación a las limitaciones de sus políticas de privacidad. El actual estado de las políticas de privacidad (estado que podría cambiar en cualquier momento), los desarrolladores deberían considerar los diferentes tipos de datos sensibles que se están recolectando y almacenando en los dispositivos móviles que podrían estar sujetos a accesos no autorizados (ya sea física o remotamente), y cómo estos datos podrían estar más protegidos. Por ejemplo, encriptando la información sensible almacenada en un teléfono movil, aunque probablemente no resolvería el problema del acceso desautorizado, al menos proveería una capa de dificultad extra ante un ataque físico. Los proveedores podrían implementar también procedimientos técnicos para detectar almacenamiento incorrecto de datos sensibles en los dispositivos móviles durante el proceso de validación inicial de la app. Pero como se dijo antes, finalmente la mayor responsabilidad recae en las usuarias, quienes deben protegerse a sí mismas de apps que almacenan su información sensible sin tomar las medidad de privacidad adecuadas. Las usuarias han de ser cautelosas cuando seleccionan apps, particularmente con aquellas que usarán para almacenar y transmitir información personal.

Estudio de Farnden-Martini-Choo: Privacy risks in mobile dating apps https://arxiv.org/pdf/1505.02906v1.pdf

Recomendaciones

Al crear un perfil en una plataforma de citas intenta proteger al máximo tu identidad e información personal

- Elije un nombre de usuario que no deje saber a cualquier persona quién eres. No incluyas tu apellido o información como tu lugar de trabajo, dirección de tu casa, etc. - Si puedes no incluyas tu e-mail personal ni tu número de teléfono en tu perfil. - Respecto a las imágenes, busca compartir las que no te importaría que pudiese ver cualquier persona del mundo. Respecto a los passwords y a tu seguridad al usar estas plataformas:

- Sé cuidadosa cuando accedes a las plataformas desde un dispositivo compartido, y también sé cuidadosa si lo haces desde un wi-fi público puesto que terceras personas podrían interceptar tus datos. - No abras archivos adjuntos que te hayan enviado personas desconocidas (o que hayas recientemente conocido a través de una plataforma)

Respecto a cómo comunicarte con tus nuevos contactos

- Tras contactar a alguien puedes buscar utilizar otro tipo de plataforma para comunicarte con esa persona. Busca un medio de comunicación encriptado, por ejemplo Signal https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software) Una vez que estés usando otro medio, fuera de las plataformas de citas, puedes seguir algunas recomendaciones del colectivo Coding Rights

Algunas recomendaciones de coding rights para hacer sexting

- Utiliza canales seguros: Necesitas una app de código libre que ofrezca encriptación a todos los niveles, que permita bloquear las capturas de pantalla, que mande imágenes que se autodestruyan tanto en el aparato desde el que se han enviado como en el servidor, y que no pida un teléfono, un nombre real o un mail. Desgraciadamente el app que haga todo a la vez no existe. Tenlo en cuenta.

- Usa la cabeza: No hagas sexting vía SMS, Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook, Tinder ya que permita identificarte y descargarse la fotos. Wickr, por ejemplo, encripta end-to-end y hace que las fotos se borren tras ser vistas. Eso sí, no lo sincronices con ninguna red social. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickr

- ¿Y Telegram?: Pese a que es más segura que otras apps, guarda tus fotos 24 horas en el servidor y pide que te registres.

- ¿Quién quiere verme desnuda/o?: Básicamente los gobiernos y las empresas privadas (sobre todo si tienen servidores) pueden hacerlo. Si, además, utilizas una wi-fi pública, cualquiera que sepa como interceptar el tráfico.

- Borra o escóndete bien: Guardar las fotos encriptadas en una buena medida de seguridad, pero borrar es otra alternativa. Recuerda que tu móvil almacena las fotos en diferentes carpetas así que utiliza programas como CC Cleaner. Piensa que tu móvil se puede perder y caer en malas manos, así que hacer un borrado general de vez en cuando es buena idea. Si decides guardarlas, recuerda que la suite de PGP permite encriptar muy bien y de manera sencilla. Eso sí, que las claves de acceso sean seguras y no las compartas con nadie nunca.

- Pide ayuda: Que tus fotos salgan a la luz no es ningún problema si esa es tu decisión, pero si no es así toma medidas. A veces basta con mandar un mail al servidor que aloja la página, otras será necesario buscar un abogado. Pero, sobre todo, busca ayuda. Hay webs como withoutmyconsent.org, womenagainstrevendeporn.com o takebackthetech.net/know-more que estarán encantadas de hacerlo.

Lecturas Interesantes, links:

Comparativa en seguridad de electronic frontier foundation: https://www.eff.org/es/deeplinks/2012/02/comparing-privacy-and-security-online-dating-sites

Nguyen Phong HOANG, Yasuhito ASANO, Masatoshi YOSHIKAWA, "Your Neighbors Are My Spies: Location and other Privacy Concerns in GLBT-focused Location-based Dating Applications" https://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.08235v1.pdf

Estudio comparativo en torno a las plataformas de citas en estados unidos entre 2005 y 2013: http://www.secretintelligenceservice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/PIP_Online-Dating-2013.pdf

Margaret Feltz "The Security of Tinder. A Mobile App That May Be More Intimate Than We Thought": http://www.cs.tufts.edu/comp/116/archive/fall2015/mfeltz.pdf

Otras estadísticas: http://www.datingsitesreviews.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Online-Dating-Industry-Facts-Statistics