Tinder Error Leaked Users’ Exact Location For Months
Photo: Jhaymesisviphotography
We’re this close to giving up on technology altogether and going off the grid. It seems like every other day there’s news of another leak or hacking scandal. A few days ago we learned that Kickstarter was hacked and data from an undisclosed number of users was stolen. While credit card numbers remained protected, the hackers gained access to users’ email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers and passwords.
And now, Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that for somewhere between one and five months there was a major security flaw in the popular dating hookup app, Tinder, that made it possible for even amateur hackers to track users’ locations within 100 feet of where they were. The security hole was discovered by Include Security, a company that “[hunts] for problematic code in popular websites, apps, and software” and “[gives] companies three months to fix the problem before publishing its findings.”
So, the folks at Include Security are ruthless opportunists, but that doesn’t mean their work isn’t valuable. The company went on to reveal that Tinder actually sat on the information for a few months before getting around to fixing the problem: Tinder was notified of the problem on October 23, 2013, but didn’t respond to Include Security until December 2.
Not good, Tinder.
The good news is that the problem was fixed sometime before the start of 2014 when all we desperate singles resolved to give the app another try. So, users should be safe (and more wary) now.
Follow Nikita Richardson on Twitter @nikitarbk
