A lot of people I’ve talked to don’t like tinder, or some even hate it, but never used it on their own. But to be tolerant and accepting different lifestyles, is now taken for granted. Despite statements as “Tinder is ruining the idea of true love, it’s too obvious just about sex.” or “The app is just for people with low self-esteem, or cheaters, to make an affair more easy.”, show that in terms of the love many people still hold on to a traditional concept. To fall in love with somebody should still be romantic as possible and not like the modern “Tinderella Story”.

Focusing on different lifestyles, apps like Tinder can change a lot. Grindr or GayRomeo offer a platform especially for gay people. It is often underestimated that even nowadays it is difficult for gay people to find potential partners. Living on the countryside where religion might limit sexual ingenuousness or growing up in a country where homosexuality is still seen as a crime.

Sadly, Grindr has become a platform used by sentencing governments to threaten gay people, leading us to a privacy problem in the most awful way. Accordingly, non-members can join on certain paths to the location data without logging in themselves. An unknown person had contacted thousands of users, sending warning messages and informing them that their location can be discerned with little effort. The online magazine "Cairo Scene" asserts that Egyptian secret services use the app to hunt down homosexuals. According to a German news-website called spiegelonline, several people have already been arrested in connection with the app. Grindr has now responded to the allegations: In a blog entry, the company promises to protect users in antigay areas through certain arrangements (Cf. http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/apps/grindr-app-fuer-homosexuelle-bringt-schwule-in-gefahr-a-990642.html). Concerning the limited information about the scenario it’s hard to make a judgment on these incidents, but it definitely shows that leaks in privacy of dating apps can have far reaching side-effects. But sometimes I think the desire of belonging somewhere and finding people similar to you are stronger than the dangerous. Maybe for heterosexual people it’s hard to imagine how it’s feels like being different. So for homosexuals apps like Grindr could be used for more than just dating, but for establish a community.

Just like Grindr, Tinder not only affects our love life, but our privacy. In spring 2015 a “Tinder-Stalking-Study” was published. The study focusses on the security risk originated by the fact that the use of the Facebook profile is the only registration opportunity at Tinder. Other users can find out the identity of a user by using a screenshot of the Tinder-profile image and the Google image search, especially if a person doesn’t protect the own Facebook page by privacy settings. Also Tinder forces the user to release personal information about political opinions and religious affiliation as well as current and former employments. Without access to this information Tinder isn’t working anymore (Cf. http://www.singleboersen-vergleich.de/news_einzel_2009/2015-01-27-pm-test-wie-gefaehrlich-ist-tinder stalking.htm).

Seeming harmless and fun, dating apps can store a lot of information about their users. In the digital world even small actions have far-reaching effects on the privacy of a person, but somehow most of the Facebook and Tinder users don’t even care about it. I think nobody would like to be seen by various people in swimwear or while changing but posting about it on Facebook and tinder seems totally fine to them. People's behavior online is often very clueless and it is significantly different from the behavior in the physical world. #blackbox