Tinder: Dating platform introduces background checks in the USA

Online dating enjoys enormous popularity, but the unknown, often friendly smiling faces of potential dates can also hide black sheep. The popular dating platform Tinder now wants to counteract this, at least in the USA, and is offering background checks to check other users for a potentially violent or otherwise criminal past.

Tinder introduces background checks

Is that friendly smiling match on online dating platform Tinder really as nice as it looks? That can now be checked quickly and easily with the help of a background check. Albeit, currently, only for users in the USA.

Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, is working with the non-profit organization Garbo to enable background checks directly within the app. Garbo collects public records of convictions in the U.S., as well as reports regarding people’s propensity for violence. This allows users to be checked for a violent or otherwise criminal past.

Up to two background checks per person are available for free, with the equivalent of around 2.26 euros ($2.50) due from the third check onwards, as Tinder reveals in the relevant press release. A “small processing fee” is also added on top.

Additional security for Tinder

With the introduction of in-app background checks, the dating platform hopes to provide an additional level of security for all registered members within the US. The check is intended to make it easier to decide to track down people who have potentially been delinquent in the past and thus potentially refrain from meeting people.

The check marks the first new safety feature Tinder will launch in 2022. Last year, the platform already launched a global identity check for members that required account verification using identification documents.