Are These Location-based Dating Apps Really Safe To Use?

Finding your destiny online, whether it's a lifelong relationship or a one-night stand, has been fairly common for quite some time. Dating apps are now part of our everyday lives. To find the ideal date, users of such dating apps are ready to reveal their names, occupations, places of work, and more. Dating apps often learn about some pretty intimate things, including the occasional nude photo. But how carefully do these best free dating apps handle the data? Are there safe dating apps, or all dating apps are dangerous? You need to identify the main threats of using these dating apps like BBWink.

Your other info is showing through the app

As you could imagine, many dating apps allow potential criminals to figure out who was hiding behind nicknames according to their user-supplied data. For example, Tinder, HAPPN, and Bumble let people see a user-specified place to work or study. Using that information, it's possible to find their social media accounts and find their real names.

HAPPN, in particular, uses its Facebook account to exchange data with the server. With minimal effort, anyone can find HAPPN users' first and last names and other information from their Facebook profiles. Also, on many dating apps, users may be surprised to see that they can see the e-mail addresses of other users. As it turns out, you are 100% recognizable on other social media by using these apps.

People could know your location

If someone wants to know where you are, six of the nine apps will help. Only some apps lock user location data together. All the other apps show the distance between you and the person you're interested in. By moving and recording the distance between the two of you, it's easy to pinpoint the exact location of the prey.

And HAPPN not only shows how many meters apart you are from another user but also shows the number of times your paths intersect, making it easier to track someone. This is actually the main feature of the app. As incredible as this kind of nearby dating app is, it is also dangerous.

Some apps do not encrypt your data

Most dating apps transfer data to the server over an encrypted channel, but there are exceptions. According to research, one of the most insecure apps uses an analysis module that does not encrypt the device's data, such as the model number, serial number, etc., while the iOS version connects to the server via HTTP, and transmits all data, including messages, unencrypted and therefore unprotected. This data is not only viewable but also modifiable.

For example, a third party might change what's going on to a request for money. And this is not the only app that lets you manage someone's account on an insecure connection. Apps like Tinder and Bumble allow attackers to discover what their potential victims are browsing. Some details about users, such as GPS data and device information, can end up in the wrong hands.

Paying users could see more

Regardless of the specific type of data that the app stores on the device, the data can be accessed with superuser privileges. This only covers android-based devices. But the research result is terrifying. Eight of the nine Android apps are prepared to provide a lot of information to cybercriminals who have SuperUser Access.

As a result, people were able to obtain social media authorization tokens from almost all of the relevant apps. These credentials are encrypted, but the decryption key is easily extracted from the app itself. Most apps store users' information and photos with their tokens. As a result, people with superuser access have easy access to confidential information.

Vulnerable server

Almost all online dating app servers use HTTPS. It means that MITM attacks could not be a big [rpblem by checking the authenticity of the certificate. In which case, the victim's traffic was routed through a rogue server on the way to the real server. Many single dating apps are vulnerable to MITM attacks because they do not verify the authenticity of the certificates.

Almost all casual sex dating apps are using Facebook. So the lack of authentication can result in temporary authorization keys being stolen in the form of tokens. Tokens are valid for two to three weeks. During which time the offender has full access to some of the victim's social media account data in addition to the victim's profile on the dating app.