Match Group, the parent company of dating apps including Tinder,
Plenty of Fish, and Match, has cut off its ties with the NGO Garbo that has
been providing background checks to users on Match Group’s platforms.
Background checks first became a thing on Tinder in 2021 and
were later offered on the other dating apps too. The tool had been allowing
users to gather additional publicly available information about their potential
dates, by just using their last name and phone number. The checks mainly provided
information related to criminal records such as public reports about violence,
past arrests, convictions, and restraining orders.
Founder of Garbo, Kathryn Kosmides, revealed the reasons for why the NGO decided to end its partnership with Match Group. According to her, Garbo has faced “continuous harassment and threats by bad actors” on Match Group’s platforms, as well as a lack of support and initiative from the company.
Kosmides further added that “it’s become clear that most
online platforms aren’t legitimately committed to trust and safety for their
users.”
Her statement may be an indication towards an internal
conflict between Garbo and Match Group’s debate on how background checks should
work, where Match Group has been reported to have wanted labels to indicate clean
or problematic criminal histories on user profiles, while Garbo did not find the
implementation appropriate. “The sad reality is that most social networks,
dating apps and online platforms care more about the bottom-line than they care
about you,” Komsides points out.
Since the ending of the partnership, Match Group has
reported that it is looking for a new background check provider and will
announce a new partnership soon.
