
Finding love, one data breach at a time.
One of my past flatmates was actively looking for love online. Besides having registered in several websites for that end, I remember he also had several mobile applications (apps) installed in his Smartphone. I think he actually subscribed pretty much anything that even remotely could help him find love but outlined Tinder as his main dating tool.
Another of my closest friends is a jogging addicted – shout out P. He has installed on his Smartphone various apps which enable him to know how much steps he has made in a particular day, the route undertaken, and the heart rate via external device, which enables him to monitor his progresses.
What both of my friends have in common? Well, they actually use mobile apps to cover very specific necessities. And in this regard they can rely with almost anybody else.
Indeed, it is difficult to escape apps nowadays. Now that everyone (except for my aunt) seems to have a Smartphone, apps are increasingly popular for the most diversified purposes. For my prior flatmate it was all about dating. For my friend, it is to keep track of his running progresses. But their potential does not end there. From receiving and sending messages, using maps and navigation services, receiving news updates, playing games, dating or just checking the weather… You name a necessity or convenience, and there is an app for it.
On the downside, using apps usually requires to provide more or less personal information to the specific intended effect. Something that has become so usual that most consider as a natural step, without giving it further consideration.
In fact, a detail that most seem to be unaware of, apps allow for a massive collection and processing of personal – and sometimes sensitive – data. In fact, the nature and the amount of personal data accessed and collected raises serious privacy and data protection concerns.
For instance, in the case of my abovementioned flatmate, who was registered on several similar apps, and considering that he did not create fake accounts nor provided false information, each of them collected at least his name, age, gender, profession, location (enabling to presume where he worked, lived and spend time), sexual orientation, what he looks like (if he added a picture to his profiles), the frequency of his accesses to the app, and eventually the success of his online dating life.
In fact, in Tinder’s own words:
“Information we collect about you
In General. We may collect information that can identify you such as your name and email address (“personal information”) and other information that does not identify you. We may collect this information through a website or a mobile application. By using the Service, you are authorizing us to gather, parse and retain data related to the provision of the Service. When you provide personal information through our Service, the information may be sent to servers located in the United States and countries around the world.
Information you provide. In order to register as a user with Tinder, you will be asked to sign in using your Facebook login. If you do so, you authorize us to access certain Facebook account information, such as your public Facebook profile (consistent with your privacy settings in Facebook), your email address, interests, likes, gender, birthday, education history, relationship interests, current city, photos, personal description, friend list, and information about and photos of your Facebook friends who might be common Facebook friends with other Tinder users. You will also be asked to allow Tinder to collect your location information from your device when you download or use the Service. In addition, we may collect and store any personal information you provide while using our Service or in some other manner. This may include identifying information, such as your name, address, email address and telephone number, and, if you transact business with us, financial information. You may also provide us photos, a personal description and information about your gender and preferences for recommendations, such as search distance, age range and gender. If you chat with other Tinder users, you provide us the content of your chats, and if you contact us with a customer service or other inquiry, you provide us with the content of that communication.”
Considering that Tinder makes available a catalogue of profiles of geographically nearby members, among which one can swipe right or left, according to each one personal preferences, with the adequate analysis, it is even possible to define what type of persons (according to age, body type, hair colour) users find most attractive.
And because Tinder actually depends on having a Facebook profile, I guess that Facebook also gets aware of the average climate of your romantic life. Mainly if you start adding and interacting with your new friends on that platform and, why not, changing your status accordingly.
In the specific case of Tinder, as it mandatorily requires to be provided with a certain amount of Facebook information in order to ensure its proper functioning, these correlations are much easier for this app.
Thus said, a sweep conducted by 26 privacy and data protection authorities from around the world on more than 1,000 diversified apps, thus including Apple and Android apps, free and paid apps, public sector and private sector apps, and ranging from games and health/fitness apps, to news and banking apps has made possible to outline the main concerns at stake.
One of the issues specifically pointed out referred to the information provided to the users/data subjects, as it was concluded that many apps did not have a privacy policy. Therefore, in those cases, users were not properly informed – and therefore aware – about the collection, use, or further disclosure of the personal information provided.
It is a fact that most of us do not read the terms and conditions made available. And most will subscribe pretty much any service he/she is willing to use, disregarding what those terms and conditions actually state.
Nevertheless, a relevant issue in this regard is the excessive amount of data collected considering the purposes for which the information is provided or how it is sneakily collected. For instance, even gambling apps, such as solitaire, which seem far more innocuous, hide unknown risks, as many contain code enabling the access to the user’s information or to his contacts’ list and even allow to track the user’s browsing activities.
This is particularly worrisome when sensitive data, such as health information is at stake. This kind of data is easily collected through fitness orientated apps, which are quite in vogue nowadays. Besides any additional personally identifiable information which you will eventually provide upon creating an account, among the elements which most certainly are collected, one can find: from the name or user name, date of birth, current weight, target weight, height, gender, workouts frequency, workout settings and duration of your workout, heart rate. Also, if you train outdoors, geo-location will most certainly enable to assess the whereabouts of your exercising, from the departure to the arrival points, which will most probably coincide with your home address or its vicinities.
And, if you are particularly proud of your running or cycling results, and are willing to show up to all your friends in what good shape you actually are, there is a chance that you can actually connect the app to your Facebook and display that information in your profile, subsequently enabling Facebook to access the same logged information.
And things actually get worse when considering that, as demonstrated by recent data breaches, it seems that the information provided by their users is not even adequately protected.
For instance, and if I remember it well, due to a security vulnerability in Tinder – that apparently has been already fixed – it seemed that there was a time where the location data, such as longitude and latitude coordinates of users were actually easily accessible. Which is actually quite creepy and dangerous, as it would facilitate stalking and harassment in real life, which is as bad as it is happening online.
Anyway, it is actually very easy to forget the amount of data we provide apps with. However, the correlations that can be made, the conclusions which can be inferred, the patterns that can be assessed amounts to share more information than what we first realise and enables a far more detailed profile of ourselves than most of us would feel comfortable with others knowing.
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