Match Group, which operates one of the world's largest portfolios of dating apps, will soon add a new profile verification feature. The feature is part of a larger effort to crack down on people who use fake photos and pretend to be other people in order to scam people out of money.
The director of brand communications for Hinge said in a statement that the feature will be rolled out next month. Users will be asked to take a video selfies in order to confirm they are a real person. Match Group plans to use machine learning technology and human moderators to compare facial features from selfies to photos on a user's profile. Once the video is confirmed as authentic, a user gets a verified Badge on their Profile.
There is a proliferation of fake accounts on the dating app. There is something off-putting about the glossy photos in these fake profiles. The person joins the dating app. It's a sign that a person is using a translation app to try to connect with someone in their native language. In many instances, the person on the other end of the fraudulent profile will urge their match to move the conversation off of the app in order to maintain a dialogue.
People in the US, UK, Canada, India, Australia, Germany, France, and more are expected to be able to use selfies verification by the end of the year.
"We are committed to investing in new updates and technologies that prevent harm to our daters"
It's not the first time that a dating app has used a face recognition tool to try to spot fakes. Prior to this, there were photo verification tools available. A Match Group spokeswoman told WIRED in August that photographic verification would be coming to Match.com.
Match Group has emphasized that it has a Trust and Safety team consisting of more than 450 employees who work across the company's many dating apps, and that last year Match Group invested more than $125 million to build new technology "to help make dating safe." It created an advisory council four years ago to come up with policies.
It has been a long time since the company has rolled out video verification tools. It is not clear if the video verification feature will be required for all users or if it will be optional.
I'm really me.
An independent privacy and security researcher, who has also programmed a game about sex work and privacy called OnlyBans, says in an email that she strongly believes that it's not necessary to have a password in a dating app The added benefit of giving users options might make a multi-pronged verification approach more effective. Some people aren't comfortable with the use of fingerprints. Some people don't have a drivers license. It is a difficult problem to verify online.
She thinks that using only facial recognition for profile verification will last for a long time.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
