Your Dating App Data Might Be Shared With the U.S. Government

When you download a dating app, fill out a profile with some of your most private information, and select "allow app to access location" to locate nearby potential love interests, you may feel a little exposed, but you proceed anyway, in order to find those dates. But there is reason to believe that by using these sites, you may be unknowingly submitting to government tracking--and we can't know for sure because of all of the secrecy involved with deals that data brokers make with government agencies. It's yet another demonstration of the need to bring transparency to the data-collection industry. Dating apps ask users for a variety of highly personal information and retain it indefinitely, potentially forever. This can include photos and videos, text conversations with other users, and information on gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, religion, desire to have children, location, HIV status, and beyond.