Tinder to lose background-checking tool

SAN FRANSCISCO: The background-checking tool used by Tinder's parent company Match Group to offer a safety feature for its users is shutting down.

he non-profit organisation Garbo which provided background checks to users of some of Match Group’s apps is ending its partnership with the company, reports The Verge.

The service will shut down on August 31.

The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The integration allowed users to run a limited number of free background checks on a potential date using only their last name and phone number, letting them see public reports about violence, past arrests, convictions, and restraining orders.

While it's unclear what went wrong between the two firms, Garbo appears to blame Match Group, said the report.

In a post on Garbo’s blog, founder Kathryn Kosmides said she made the decision to shut down the service after facing “a lack of support and real initiative from online platforms” as well as “continuous harassment and threats by bad actors on these platforms”.

Moreover, the report mentioned that there were also some internal conflicts about how the background checks should work.

While Match Group reportedly wanted to display a badge on people’s Tinder profiles to signal they had clean criminal histories, Kosmides disagreed.

“You can’t white-list someone or give them a ‘good guy, bad guy’ identity verification. It’s become clear that most online platforms aren’t legitimately committed to trust and safety for their users,” she added.

In May, Tinder announced changes to its existing Community Guidelines in which it said to remove social handles from public bios.

As the company explained, Tinder is not a place to promote businesses to try to make money -- members shouldn't advertise, promote, or share social handles or links to gain followers, sell things, fundraise, or campaign.