Swipe Right on Privacy: How To Keep Your Data Safe on Dating Apps

Amanda Knudsen

Last Updated: 26/11/24

Did you know that your heart isn’t the only thing at risk when using dating apps or websites? These platforms are notorious for collecting vast amounts of sensitive data, ranging from users’ contact details to sexual orientation. So, what can you do to protect your privacy while searching for the perfect match? Surfshark has a solution for you — but first, let’s learn more about the dangers of sharing data with dating apps.

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Dating Apps Know Where You Are — and They Can Expose It

A major risk of using dating apps is the potential exposure of your personal information. Dating apps gather a lot of sensitive data, yet they’re not known for their robust security measures. When you register with your contact details, they get stored in databases that are potentially vulnerable to data breaches or security flaws. 

In other words, once you share your information with an app or website, its privacy depends on the often questionable security measures it employs. Once that data is leaked, you may experience numerous negative consequences, including spam calls, targeted scams, stalking, and even identity theft.

In addition, your phone number and email are linked to many of your most important accounts, including your bank account and social media profiles. This is why protecting this data is crucial, ensuring that scammers can’t exploit its exposure to access your accounts.

Security vulnerabilities are also an important concern. They can go as far as exposing your exact location to third parties. For instance, a recent investigation by Check Point Research uncovered a security flaw that allows anyone to find the exact location from which a user is connected to their dating app. 

Keep Your Privacy to Yourself: Use Alternative Number

Considering all these privacy risks, is it possible to protect your information while continuing to use dating apps? Absolutely! The best approach is to avoid sharing your real details altogether — and that’s exactly why Surfshark created Alternative ID and Alternative Number. 

Alternative ID is a privacy solution that allows you to generate an alternative persona and an email address to use online. Its premium feature, Alternative Number, allows you to generate a virtual phone number, masking your real one. With these two tools, you can register for dating apps and websites without revealing your real email and phone number and keep your data away from unsafe databases. And, most importantly, you can continue swiping and searching for the one safely!

Additionally, when you start connecting with potential dates, you might still be hesitant to share your personal information. You can use your Alternative Number for this — all calls and messages will be securely forwarded to your real number, keeping your information private.

Worried Your Data Has Already Been Leaked? Try Alert and Incogni

If you’ve already shared your information with dating websites and are now concerned about data leaks, don’t worry — we have solutions to help you better protect your privacy.

To keep an eye on the security of your contact and financial information, you should try Alert. Alert is Surfshark’s data leak detector, which helps you monitor your most important details, such as email addresses, credit cards, or IDs. If your personal information is found in a breached database, Alert will instantly notify you and instruct you on what to do next. This way, you can stay informed about your account safety at all times and take action quickly, preventing further damage from the data leak. 

If you get frequent spam calls or even scam attempts, and are worried your information is already stored in many databases, you can use Incogni. Incogni is a data removal service that helps you remove your personal information from data brokers’ databases. With it, you can take back control of your personal information and prevent data brokers from continuing to exploit it. 

Keep Matching and Stay Secure

Dating apps and websites are risky when it comes to privacy — but most people will continue to use them, disregarding the potential dangers. However, with security solutions such as Alternative Number, you can keep swiping confidently, knowing your personal information is not stored on the dating app’s database or shared with strangers. So, start using Alternative Number and continue looking for that perfect match safely!

Visit Surfshark To Discover All Their Features That Keep Your Privacy Secure!

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