Secure Dating Apps
Mobile online dating apps are popular among adults looking to find their ideal partner. According to the Pew Research Center, 15 percent of U.S. adults said they had used matchmaking sites in 2015. Following Valentine’s Day, many dating sites may offer promotions, coupons, and discounts to encourage new users to enroll, meaning new users will be using these apps for the first time.
While these apps allow users to effortlessly connect with other singles sharing similar interests through the push of a button or swipe of a finger, the amount of sensitive personal information they contain is cause for concerns when it comes to cybersecurity.
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A 2016 review of five of the top dating apps by Seworks, found that all five apps contained exploits that made them vulnerable to hacking. The Seworks analysis found that hackers had accessibility to reverse engineer and compromise the apps and that even the source codes were too easy to read, which provided access to critical information.
As a result of these vulnerabilities, nearly 15,000 complaints were reported under the category of romance or confidence scams in 2016, according to the FBI’s Crime Complaint Center. People may not be aware that using these apps could make them more vulnerable to data breaches. One reason for this could be an overall lack of cybersecurity measures.
The University of Phoenix’s most recent cybersecurity survey suggests that many of these breaches could be a result of Americans not taking proper precautions to protect themselves online. According to the survey, men and women alike are not practicing cybersecurity best practices, and unmarried people take fewer precautions online.
The University’s survey found that nearly 43 percent of U.S. adults have experienced a personal data breach in the past three years, with half of male respondents having been hacked. Men are more likely to use dating apps – 17 percent compared to 14 percent of women, according to Pew. While women are less likely to connect to public networks when away from home, they are 8 percent more likely to always or usually connect to one that is secure.
Despite men’s likeliness to connect to unsecure public Wi-Fi networks, the survey suggests that they are more likely than women to take other cybersecurity measures. Men are five percent less likely than women to provide personal information online and nearly 10 percent more likely to invest in identity theft protection like VPNs and firewalls.
The survey also found that dating apps’ primary audience – unmarried people – are less cybersecurity-aware than those who are married. More than six in 10 unmarried people said they use the internet on their devices on unsecured public Wi-Fi networks every day. Additionally, married people are 14 percent more likely to invest in identity theft protection.
Dating apps can be useful matchmaking tools, but those interested in trying online dating apps should be aware of the cybersecurity concerns that come with finding an introduction to your soulmate electronically. Below are three tips to help protect your information:
Don’t use the online dating apps on public, unprotected Wi-Fi networks
Criminals have developed sophisticated methods to breach security systems, but hacking can be made much easier when users access apps on public Wi-Fi networks. These networks, like those offered in coffee shops, airports, or hotel lobbies, often do not require passwords and allow anyone to monitor your activity.
If you choose to access your account while in public, elect to use your phone’s Bluetooth instead of public networks and install a VPN. Additionally, consider disabling GPS and tracking for dating apps so that criminals cannot monitor your whereabouts.
Don’t share personal information online or via apps, text, or email
To enroll, most dating apps require users to provide their names, locations, and photos, and they may ask for more sensitive information like place of employment or income amount. If you sign up for an app, provide as little personal information as possible and never share information over in-app messaging, text, or email.
While the person you are talking to may not be a criminal, hackers can access your messages and uncover your personal information if your account is hacked. Wait to share these details until you meet your match in person. If they insist on you providing bank information or to send them money, contact the authorities.
Don’t sync your apps with social media accounts
Withholding personal information over dating apps can help keep you safe, but research into the apps shows that much of this information can be found by hackers if accounts are linked to social profiles. Most dating apps are protected by passwords and may offer multi-factor authentication for an added layer of security. Using strong and diverse passwords on social sites can help enhance security, but syncing accounts to social sites create tokens that are often not secure.
Many dating apps will use tokens from social media sites to verify users who chose to sync the apps with their accounts. These tokens allow the apps temporary access to personal information despite the social media sites being password-protected. Shared information can include friend lists, addresses, interests, birthdays, employment, and more. These tokens are often not securely stored and can provide hackers access to a user’s full profile.
About the Author:Dennis Bonilla is the Executive Dean at the College of Information Systems and Technology and School of Business, University of Phoenix. You can connect with him on Twitter here: @DennisBonillaIT.
Editor’s Note:The opinions expressed in this and other guest author articles are solely those of the contributor, and do not necessarily reflect those of Tripwire, Inc.
Most online dating site and app users today like those from POF or any other dating site ask their date for a Security Dating Certificate, they say that this is for their safety,
What is Security Dating Certificate
As per the word certificate, Security Dating Certificate is basically a document that proves that the person possessing it has gone through online dating background checks. These checks make sure that a user is a real person and not a bot (which are commonly used to scam people in dating sites), it also scans the record of that person to make sure that he/she has no criminal records related to online dating. Some people call this dating certificate agreement or safe dating agreement but they all mean the same thing.
Why is Security Dating Certificate Required
60% of people being asked for a Security Dating Certificate are asking “Why would I need one?”, online daters are now asking for a dating certificate mainly because of the security risks in dating sites.
If you are new in online dating there’s a high chance that you’re not aware of the crimes being committed in dating sites. There are multiple reports of criminals preying on innocent victims from dating sites, here’s an example from
Reported crimes related to online dating have risen dramatically in the last five years.
Exclusive figures for Sky News from UK police forces show that 2,054
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Becky Crozier suffered panic attacks and depression after being stalked by a man she met online.
After three dates she broke up but despite not revealing where she lived he managed to track her down.
For almost 10 months she was too scared to leave her house.
These kinds of crimes have been the obvious reason why dating site members are so skeptical about meeting up personally with strangers they met online.
Here’s what a common security dating certificate looks like:
How to Get a Security Dating Certificate
Here’s the step by step process on how to get your own safe dating certificate:
- Go to the security dating certification site. If the link does not work or you encounter errors when signing up, here’s an alternative link for the dating certification site.
- Create an account.
- Upgrade your account. You can choose any plan. You will get your safe dating certification as long as you pass the identity and background checks.
- Once successfully verified, a certificate seal will appear on your profile.
- You can now show your profile to anyone who asks you for a safety dating certificate.
Why is a Credit Card Required to Get a Dating Certificate
Upgrading your account has been the most common method used by dating sites to verify that registering users are not a bots. Here’s the explanation:
- This is how dating sites make money. This is pretty obvious. Nothing’s actually free on the internet. It’s either you pay for a service like dating sites or they sell your personal information to advertisers.
- Scammers can’t afford to pay for all dating sites that they enter. According to our research, scammers are trying to infiltrate hundreds of dating sites per day. That means they have to spend thousands of dollars daily if they choose to use paid dating sites.
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How does Dating Security Certificate work
Once you sign up through a safe dating certification site, your name, age, & photo will undergo verification to make sure they are legit. In order to verify your name and age, you will either be required depending on the dating site to enter a credit card or upload proof of identity documents like a driver’s license. For the dating site to verify that you uploaded your real photo, the metadata will be reviewed to check if the photo was taken from a camera or was just downloaded from the internet. The date that the photo was taken will also be checked.
Who Should use Safe Dating Certificate
You should get a security dating certificate if your date asks. On the other hand, you should ask your date for a dating certificate if you are skeptical about whether she is a real person and is not using a fake identity. Nonetheless, every online dater should take advantage of security measures such as dating certificates to minimize the risk of being scammed or getting your identity stolen from dating sites. July 09, 2020 Update: Here are some data we’ve gathered to give you an idea of who are the people getting scammed on dating sites:
- Most online dating scam victims are within the age of 25-50.
- The majority of the victims are from UK, USA, Canada, Australia.
- 58% of online dating scam victims are women.
- 1/4 of the victims are from gay dating sites.
- 80% of the total online dating crime reports are related to money while 20% of them are identity theft related.