Researchers from Belgian university KU Leuven said in a new study that they were able to determine the exact location of users of some popular dating apps. They released their findings in a new study titled "Swipe Left for Identity Theft."
Researchers said they were able to determine the location of users in six out of 15 location-based dating apps. These apps help match users with others nearby.
Locations could be determined using trilateration. Trilateration is the process of forming a triangle, or circle around a user, and pinpointing their location based on the distance from that user.
The study noted that apps Badoo, Grindr, happn, Bumble, Hinge and Hilly were the apps on which researchers could pinpoint the exact location of users.
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These apps often rely on GPS data to help pair nearby users. Researchers also noted that this data is prone to leaks.
"Sharing one’s location is crucial to these apps, as users are shown profiles of people in their vicinity," the researchers wrote. "However, the adversary can use that location to physically stalk people, and in extreme cases, carry out assaults and murder of LBD app users. Given these potentially severe risks to a person’s virtual and physical safety, and genuine user concerns about those risks, LBD apps must carefully protect users’ personal data, in particular preventing any (inadvertent) leaks."
Other popular apps, such as Tinder, POF and OKCupid, did not give the researchers the same ability to find a user's exact location.
The researchers noted, however, that those apps could also expose users to unintended leaks of other information, such as health, racial and other information.
"The apps’ privacy policies generally fail to inform users about these privacy threats and leave the burden of protecting personal (sensitive) data to the users," the researchers wrote. "We hope that the awareness that we bring of these issues will lead LBD app providers to reconsider their data gathering practices, protect their (Application Programming Interfaces) APIs from data leaks, prevent location inference, and give users control of their data and therefore ultimately their privacy."
