Dating App Accused of Leaking Users’ Private Information from Their Profiles

Security Researcher discovered a leak within the dating app Plenty of Fish of the data that users had specially set as "private" on their profiles. The leaked information was not straight away obvious to the app users, and the information was scrambled to make it hard to peruse.

In any case, utilizing freely accessible tools intended to dissect network traffic, the researcher discovered that it was possible to uncover the data about the users as their profiles showed up on his phone.

As indicated by The App Analyst, a 'mobile expert' who expounds on his examinations of mainstream applications on his eponymous blog, POF was in every case quietly restoring the users' first names and postal ZIP codes which was the primary indication that something was truly amiss with the application.

In one case, the App Analyst even discovered enough data to identify where a specific user lived.

As of late, law enforcement also has on multiple occasions issued admonitions about the dangers a few people face on dating applications, similar to Plenty of Fish, which has approx. more than 150 million registered users, as indicated by its parent company IAC. Reports propose sex attacks involving these dating applications have ascended dramatically in the previous five years.

Furthermore, those in the LGBTQ+ community on these applications additionally face safety dangers from both people as well as the government, prompting applications like Tinder to proactively caution their LGBTQ+ users when they visit locales and states with prohibitive and harsh laws against same-sex accomplices.

Prior this year, the App Analyst found various outsider third-party tools that were permitting application developers to record the device’s screen while users engaged in with their applications resulting in a crackdown by Apple.

Even though spokespersons for 'Plenty of Fish' refused to comment regarding the matter immediately, a fix is said to have turned out recently for the data leakage bug.

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