Amy Webb was having no luck with online dating. The dates she liked didn't write her back, and her own profile attracted crickets (and worse). So, as any fan of data would do: she started · February 10, Millions of people are using online dating sites to search for love or connection, but users should beware: many online dating sites are taking short cuts in · While online dating companies have long privacy policies, they are always vulnerable, as are many other companies, to having their databases hacked. Remember
Amy Webb: How I hacked online dating | TED Talk
Millions of people are using online dating sites to search for love or connection, could your online dating profile get hacked, but users should beware: many online dating sites are taking short cuts in safeguarding the privacy and security of users. Here are six sobering facts about online dating services and a few suggestions for routing around the privacy pitfalls. The most pressing concern is that information about you may be exposed to future legal requests that might involve a criminal investigation, a divorce case, or even a legal tussle with could your online dating profile get hacked insurance company.
As Joseph Bonneau explainedthe main website provides an obfuscated URL for the photo to anyone it deems has permission to view it. What you can do about it: Look at the privacy policy of a website before you sign could your online dating profile get hacked and see what they say about how they treat data of deleted profiles. Remember that a privacy policy can change at any time; even if a site promises to discard your data upon deletion now, it could revise that policy tomorrow to hang on to data for a few months — or forever.
If you decide to could your online dating profile get hacked up for a dating site, consider taking a few steps to make it harder for a dating site to easily identify you.
Get a throw-away email address, avoid using your name, and avoid paid sites that would elicit your credit card number and billing information. To maintain the highest levels of privacy, consider taking steps to obfuscate your IP address, such as using a VPN. Gaping security holes riddle popular mobile dating sites-still.
In January, an Australian hacker exploited a security flaw in Grindr, the mobile app that allows gay and questioning men to find sexual partners nearby through the use of GPS technology. The vulnerability allows an attacker to impersonate another user, send messages on his behalf, access sensitive data like photos and messages, and even view passwords.
Your profile is indexed by Google. Even something as small as a unique turn of phrase could show up in search results and bring casual visitors to your page. Your pictures can identify you. Users hoping to create a barrier between their real identities and their online dating profiles might use strategies such as pseudonyms and misleading information in a profile to obfuscate their identity. However, just changing your name and a few facts about your life may not be enough.
If you use a photo on your dating site that can be associated with one of your other online accounts—for example, if it had previously been shared on your Facebook profile or LinkedIn profile — then your real identity could be easily discovered. What you can do about it: Face it no pun intended : there are a number of ways your online dating profile can be connected to your real identity, especially if you have a robust online life. Photos are a particular vulnerability.
Try searching for the image using TinEye and Google Image Search before uploading it. And be aware that search technology and facial recognition technology is rapidly evolving. This might be a particular concern for individuals who use niche dating sites, such as HIV-positive or queer dating sites.
Your data is helping online marketers sell you stuff. The cynics among us might think this is the primary purpose of an online dating site. The operators of these sites cull vast amounts of data from users age, interests, ethnicity, religion, etc. In addition, last October researcher Jonathan Mayer discovered that OkCupid was actually leaking 1 personal data to some of its marketing partners. Information such as age, drug use, drinking frequency, ethnicity, gender, income, relationship status, religion and more was leaked to online advertiser Lotame.
What you can do about it: You should consider contacting the sites you use to clarify their practices and letting them know your concerns, could your online dating profile get hacked.
If you are dissatisfied with a company's practices with sharing data, you might also consider filing a complaint with the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's Online Complaint Center.
Remember, part of what helps companies change practices is public interest in an issue, so blog posts and public discussion can help push companies to adopt better practices.
HTTPS support is a wreck on many of the popular online dating sitesmeaning you risk exposing your browsing history, messages, and much more when you use them. Unfortunately, our recent survey of major online dating sites found that most of them were not properly implementing HTTPS. Some online dating sites offer partial support for HTTPS, and some offer none at all. This leaves user data exposed. For example, when a user is on a shared network such as a library or coffee shop, she may be exposing sensitive data such as a username, chat messages, what pages she views and thus what profiles she is viewinghow she responds to questions, and more to an eavesdropper monitoring the wireless connection.
Even worse, poor security practices leave her vulnerable to having her entire account taken over by an attacker.
See our in-depth post on OkCupid to learn more, could your online dating profile get hacked. What you can do about it: Start protecting yourself immediately by installing HTTPS Everywhere, a Firefox addon created and maintained jointly by EFF and the Tor Project.
When you use Firefox, HTTPS Everywhere will automatically change URLs from HTTP to HTTPS on over a thousand sites. EFF is individually contacting online dating sites to get them to step up their security practices, but we could use your help. Please send an email to OkCupid to tell them to safeguard user privacy and security.
In a victory for users, Slack has fixed its long-standing retention problems for free workspaces. Instead of holding onto your messages on its servers for as long as your workspace exists, could your online dating profile get hacked, Slack is now giving free workspace admins the option to automatically delete all messages older than 90 days Earlier this week, EFF, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and Demand Progress sent a letter to the Senate expressing our concerns about H.
This bill would require states to recognize The Federal Aviation Administration FAA will soon rule on Beyond Visual Line of Sight BVLOS drones, which are capable of flying while its operator pilot is far away.
While these types of drones might offer benefits to society—think of deliveries, infrastructure inspection, and precision agriculture—they also pose serious threats to The scourge of stalkerware—malicious apps used by perpetrators of domestic violence to secretly spy on their victims—is not going unchallenged or unaddressed.
Antivirus makers are increasingly adding stalkerware to the list of apps their products detect on devices; victim support groups help people figure out whether their devices are A growing number of states have prohibited transgender youths from obtaining gender-affirming health care.
So these youths and their families must travel out-of-state for necessary health care. The states they visit are health care sanctuaries. These states must also be data sanctuaries for transgender youths. Earlier this year, the governor of While this is not a new practice, the public is being told this massive scanning should extend to nearly every reach of their online activity so Jump straight to the Online Privacy for Nonprofits Guide to Better Practices Today, the vast majority of websites and emails that you encounter contain some form of tracking.
When data broker SafeGraph got caught selling location information on Planned Parenthood visitorsit had a public relations trick up could your online dating profile get hacked sleeve.
After the company could your online dating profile get hacked to remove family planning center data from its platforms in response to public outcry, CEO Auren Hoffman tried to flip the narrative There's a lot of discussion right now about how a federal privacy billthe American Data Privacy Protection Act H.
EFF has a clear position on this: federal privacy laws should not roll back state privacy protections. The ADPPA, as currently written, would About Contact Press People Opportunities Issues Free Speech Privacy Creativity and Innovation Transparency International Security Our Work Deeplinks Blog Press Releases Events Legal Cases Whitepapers Podcast Take Action Action Center Electronic Frontier Alliance Volunteer Tools Privacy Badger HTTPS Everywhere Surveillance Self-Defense Certbot Atlas of Surveillance Cover Your Tracks Crocodile Hunter Donate Donate to EFF Shop Other Ways to Give Membership FAQ Donate Donate to EFF Shop Other Ways to Give Search form Search.
Join EFF Lists. Copyright Could your online dating profile get hacked BY Trademark Privacy Policy Thanks. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Six Heartbreaking Truths about Online Dating Privacy. Commentary by rainey Reitman.
Share It Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Copy link. Mayer clarified: "Leakage, in common parlance, implies unintentionality. In computer security, leakage is a term of art for an information flow—some instances of leakage are entirely intentional.
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How I hacked online dating - Amy Webb
, time: 17:28Dating Websites and Apps That Got Hacked - Dating Site Reviews
Amy Webb was having no luck with online dating. The dates she liked didn't write her back, and her own profile attracted crickets (and worse). So, as any fan of data would do: she started · While online dating companies have long privacy policies, they are always vulnerable, as are many other companies, to having their databases hacked. Remember · Dating application Tinder helps users find love - and flings - but a researcher revealed this week that an easy-to-exploit security bug recently left accounts and private chats
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