Tinder Blocks Users Based on Information From Independent Screening Platform

An investigation has found that Tinder might have recently started using a third-party website to conduct background checks on its users.

Gratis Dating Tips, an online dating review website based in The Netherlands, uncovered the new information in Tinder’s freely available web-app code. The screenshot shows that the decision to block an account was made based on a report from backgroundchecks.com.

Michael Slender from Gratis Dating Tips told Global Dating Insights that he regularly checks the code and believes the update was made in the past month or so.

The exact code reads: “Your Tinder profile has been banned for activity that violates our {termsOfUse}.

“This decision was made partially based on a report we received from backgroundchecks.com. Backgroundchecks.com was not involved in the decision to close your Tinder account and will not be able to provide you with the specific reasons about the closure.”

It is not clear whether this new screening process is being done manually or automatically, but the backgroundchecks.com website states that, under the ‘Premium’ pricing plan, results take 1-3 business days to return.

Backgroundchecks.com hosts 650 million criminal records from all 50 US dates, including driving records, drug screening and credit reports.

At the end of 2019, Match Group was accused of not doing enough to prevent criminals from using its services. This came after it was discovered that 10% of dating app sexual assault cases involved a criminal who had been previously convicted.

A spokesperson for the online dating company said that there were “definitely registered sex offenders” using its free platforms, because a unified screening process was too expensive and unreliable.

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