Match Group / Tinder

Reasons to avoid

1. An 18-month investigation by the Pulitzer Center and CalMatters, published by The Guardian and NPR in February 2025, found that Match Group had been tracking reports of rape and assault across its apps since 2016, with its internal database logging hundreds of troubling incidents per week by 2022. The company repeatedly failed to remove reported abusers, and in one documented case, a Denver man was reported for rape as early as September 2020 but remained active on Hinge and Tinder until his arrest in 2023, by which point at least 15 women had reported being attacked.themarkup.org2025-02-13
2. The FTC sued Match Group in 2019, alleging it misled users with a "six-month guarantee" that came with hidden conditions, made subscriptions deliberately difficult to cancel, and retaliated against users who disputed charges. The company settled in August 2025 for $14 million and was required to overhaul its cancellation practices across Match.com, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish, and other platforms.ftc.gov2025-08-13
3. The FTC settled with Match Group and its OkCupid subsidiary in March 2026 after finding that OkCupid secretly shared nearly 3 million users' photos, along with demographic and location data, with facial recognition company Clarifai starting in 2014 without informing users or obtaining consent. The FTC also found that Match Group spent over a decade concealing the data transfer and actively obstructing the federal investigation.ftc.gov2026-03-30