If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Looking for love online is complicated. Ghosting and Tinder etiquette make dating apps a social minefield, but they can also be a security one. During testing, four of the free apps exposed customer information by not fully securing data sent from the app's owners to customers' phones.
The analysis also highlighted the amount of personal data being collected by MeetMe and specific location data being gathered by Once. HotOrNot, Tinder, Match. Within the unsecured data, personal details could be seen. The technique β a man-in-the-middle attack β involves inspecting information sent to a device during an app's normal usage. In this instance, the Mitmproxy software was used.
During the investigation, the man-in-the-middle attack was performed by the researcher on himself - or to be more precise, on the apps installed on his phone. There is also no evidence any of the apps have been hacked or customer data compromised.
The technique was recently used to find security flaws in fitness trackers. Another study found Google Play store and Apple App store apps sharing data with third parties β an issue that could be problematic with data protection laws. App analysis firm verify. It found 33 applications had low risk problems, 24 medium risk issues and 19 of the apps allowed access to financial or medical credentials. France-based dating app Happn , which has more than ten million customers, lets members find people they have crossed paths with in real life.
It's supposed to only reveal a person's first name, but technical analysis of data packets showed it also leaks a person's Facebook ID. Using this ID, it's possible to view a full profile page and identify the person.
