Welcome to 2015, Tinder! The Match Group-owned dating app just confirmed that it has updated its security practices, making it harder for hackers to peek into other people’s accounts.
Earlier this year, security researchers were able to demonstrate that malicious actors on the same Wi-Fi connection as someone using Tinder could be able to both see photos shared as well as deduce whether this unknowing dater swiped left, right, or matched.
In a letter to Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who brought up Tinder’s security flaws, Match Group CEO Jared Sine announced the changes. “We take the security and privacy of our users seriously and employ a network of tools and systems to protect the integrity of our platform, including encryption,” he wrote.
Now, all images are fully encrypted between devices and the company’s server. Not only that, but the company has made the packet sizes for all Tinder actions (that is, swiping) the same size. This means hackers will be unable to know what someone did by looking at the action’s size.
Sine added in the letter that the company is working hard to be steps ahead of hackers, and does not usually disclose its security protocol. “But,” he wrote,” please know that we are continually working to stop cyber threats and attackers.”
Let’s call this a win for both single people and standard security protocol. You can read the full letter here.
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