Technology

58133 readers

4476 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

188

Bumble and Hinge allowed stalkers to pinpoint users’ locations down to 2 meters, researchers say (techcrunch.com)

submitted 1 month ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

In a new academic paper, researchers from the Belgian university KU Leuven detailed their findings when they analyzed 15 popular dating apps. Of those, Badoo, Bumble, Grindr, happn, Hinge and Hily all had the same vulnerability that could have helped a malicious user to identify the near-exact location of another user, according to the researchers.

While neither of those apps share exact locations when displaying the distance between users on their profiles, they did use exact locations for the “filters” feature of the apps. Generally speaking, by using filters, users can tailor their search for a partner based on criteria like age, height, what type of relationship they are looking for and, crucially, distance.

To pinpoint the exact location of a target user, the researchers used a novel technique they call “oracle trilateration.”

The good news is that all the apps that had these issues, and that the researchers reached out to, have now changed how distance filters work and are not vulnerable to the oracle trilateration technique.

Neither Badoo, which is owned by Bumble, nor Hinge responded to a request for comment.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] another@discuss.online 4 points 1 month ago

When the apps also show the distance down to feet, you can triangulate their exact potion by moving your phone’s gps location.

Always choose the “don’t show” option. It’s not perfect, but it makes triangulation more difficult.

Also, pro tip, always ask new people to show their face while doing something that people don’t normally do, like holding up three fingers or a scrap of paper with text YOU chose.

Obviously AI makes things more difficult, but this weeds out most of the “average” catfishers.