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How To (ALMOST) Keep Your Tinder Private From Your Facebook

Tinder requires Facebook to function, meaning you can’t really do one without having the other. But there are ways to limit how much Facebook information you share…


When you set up a Tinder profile, you need to have a Facebook account. You can’t have one without the other.

Facebook forms part of how Tinder functions at its core, so keeping your Tinder account private from your Facebook account is tricky, though it isn’t impossible…

The following options, either used collectively or individually, will help you limit how much exposure your Facebook profile has when you’re using Tinder. Most are easily implemented, taking less than a couple of minutes.

Increase Your Facebook Privacy Settings

Many still use Facebook without any privacy settings what-so-ever.

That’s ill-advised anyway as employers and the like will be watching your social media channels, so it’s worth making sure you at least have some measures in place.

Unless you want your boss to see how large you have it every Friday, that is.

You want to keep the visible details to a bare minimum so potential dates will go through the Tinder app and not try and contact you via Facebook.

There’s nothing worse than someone you’ve never met posting directly on your wall.

Another simple option? Change your Tinder profile’s location.

Set Tinder To Without Facebook Friends

Within Tinder, you used to be able to change the settings and tell it not to match you up with your Facebook friends.

Beforehand if you hadn’t turned this option on you would sometimes appear in their feeds meaning you’re revealed to be on Tinder.

Tinder has now taken this tick box away and it is now on by default.

You can’t switch it off meaning if you are friends with someone on Facebook they will never appear in your potential matches and you’ll never appear in theirs.

It’s a strange choice to take the option away entirely, most people have a big selection of Facebook friends they don’t know too well and it could be good to let them know you’re into them.

Hide Tinder From Your Facebook Apps

Facebook allows a variety of services to be integrated. Once you’ve given permission a load of different services will be connected to your Facebook and can sometimes message your friends or post to your wall.

No-one wants to advertise the fact they’re on Tinder though, so you need to head into your settings to hide Tinder’s access to your profile.

You can do this inside Facebook, head to Privacy settings, and then “See more settings.”

Inside there you need to choose Apps and from there you can decide each app’s access, to control it you need to press edit on the right of the app itself.

It’ll say “Visibility of app and posts” and you want to choose the “only me” option there.

Now only you will see your access to the app and your friends won’t be able to. Perfect.

The Nuclear Option: Make A Fake Account

We aren’t trying to get you to Catfish someone.

The fake account you’re going to set up will include your real name, your real details, your real interests and most importantly your real photos.

It just keeps it entirely separate and you use this one to sign into Tinder.

It means you can more easily monitor the details which make their way into Tinder selections and there are no complications with interactions with your friends.

Tip: Be sure to delete the Facebook account once you’re done with Tinder, it will make friends finding you on Facebook a lot more complicated.

What Is Tinder? Is It Any Good?

Online dating has been around for a while now and it’s something most people have probably tried (and perhaps become tired of) at some point or another.

However, with the surge in popularity of smart devices and their accompanying apps, it was only a matter of time until someone came up with a clever way of merging online dating with your phone.

If Tinder isn’t your thing, or you don’t want to pay £15 a month for unlimited swiping, then you might want to check out Bumble, a largely similar application, created by one of the founders of Tinder, that aims to empower women by putting them in control of who they message.

It’s a very decent application and will likely give Tinder some cause for concern in the coming months and years. 

You can also see how Tinder compares to Happn, a location-based dating service, and OKCupid, which is one of the biggest, data-centric dating applications on the planet.

Both are great and often you’ll get the best results when using all three –– or four if you include Bumble.

Tinder got there first and has really revamped mobile dating into something many existing online services are now trying to mimic.

Mobile dating is now all about swiping. Left if you don’t like ’em, right if you do.

But if you don’t want everyone knowing you’re on the hunt for that special someone, you’ll need a way of using Tinder without Facebook.

Tinder uses Facebook profiles to authenticate real people and keep what the app believes is “quality control” to the highest possible level.

It also uses your Facebook profile to match you up with people of similar interests and your Facebook likes as well as finding your location.

Tinder recently made some pretty BIG changes to how it does business. Previously you could like and swipe as many people as you wanted, but nowadays the amount of likes you can do in one 24 hour period is limited to around 100.

Want more? You’ll have to pay £15 a month for the privilege.

And, worse still, if you’re over 30 years old it costs more –– talk about ageism.

So the bad news is there currently isn’t a way to use Tinder without using your Facebook account.

Here are some tips to keep your Tinder activity as under wraps as possible.

Tinder “Super Like” Explained

Tinder has now rolled out the “Super Like” feature in a new update of the application released globally. Users of the app who update will notice a new prompt when launching it, pointing to and notifying them of the new feature, what it does, and how it works. Users are able to use one Super Like every 24 hours, so be sure to save it for someone who really gets your blood pumping!

Tinder previously revealed its plans to introduce a new “Super Like” feature to its popular dating application. The firm announced that the feature is rolling out in an update to users in Australia first (as a sort of testbed) and will allow them a third swipe option. Where swiping left says “Nope” and swiping right says “Yes”, swiping up will now “Super Like”. Alternatively, if you’re one of those people who like tapping the buttons, there’s a Blue Star on each profile you can tap to Super Like.

“Users will be able to determine whether someone has Super Liked them by the presence of a blue footer on a given profile. The receiver is still in control of whom they want to match with, but the existence of a Super Like can influence that decision,” said Tinder, in a statement.

Recently Tinder has seen a bit of a switch with more emphasis on paid extras, and Tinder confirmed that initially, each user will only have a limited number of Super Likes, however, it did not confirm whether more could be purchased via in-app payments.

Other Security Issues With Tinder

Earlier this year a security researcher found a startling vulnerability in Tinder. Per their findings:

“The vulnerabilities, found in both the app’s Android and iOS versions, allow an attacker using the same network as the user to monitor the user’s every move on the app.

It is also possible for an attacker to take control over the profile pictures the user sees, swapping them for inappropriate content, rogue advertising or other types of malicious content (as demonstrated in the research).

“While no credential theft and no immediate financial impact are involved in this process, an attacker targeting a vulnerable user can blackmail the victim, threatening to expose highly private information from the user’s Tinder profile and actions in the app.”

So, yep, using Tinder could get you blackmailed. The good news is Match Group, Tinder’s owner, was quick to fix the problem. Now all images in the app are encrypted, making it virtually impossible for a lone hacker to gain access to or alter them.

But Tinder only made the changes after a 69-year-old U.S. senator from Oregon, Senator Ron Wyden, contacted the company.

In a letter, he wrote: “Americans expect their personal information to remain private online. To that end, I urge Tinder to address these security lapses, and by doing so, to swipe right on user privacy and security.”

Match Group General Counsel Jared Sine recently replied to Wyden noting that as of June 19, “swipe data has been padded such that all actions are now the same size.” Sine also added that as of February 4th all photos had been encrypted.

“I want to assure you that protecting the private data of our users is a top priority. 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,” Sine wrote.

Terrific Tinder Tips

Want to get ahead in the world of Tinder? We’ve put together a few different user guides to help you stand out from the rest when you’re flicking left and right. Why not check them out?

 

Michael Grothaus

Michael Grothaus is an American author and journalist with a flair for exploring the intersection of technology, creativity, and digital culture. With a background in film, journalism, and creative writing, he brings a unique perspective to the world of mobile technology. His work has been featured in renowned publications like Fast Company, The Guardian, and Engadget. At KnowYourMobile, Michael leverages his extensive knowledge to guide readers through the complexities of mobile devices, helping them make informed choices in the fast-paced tech landscape.

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