Millions of Dating Site Profiles Sold on the Gray Market

When registering on dating sites, most users don’t read the user agreement and simply click “Agree.” They then upload large amounts of sensitive personal information, not realizing they are handing over valuable data to site owners. The sale of dating profiles takes place on gray markets, where sellers and buyers can easily transact without resorting to the darknet. By paying a broker, buyers immediately gain access to the names, contact information, and photos of millions of people.

The Berlin-based non-governmental organization Tactical Tech, together with artist and researcher Joana Moll, exposed this practice in their project, “The Dating Brokers: An Autopsy of Online Love.” In May of last year, Moll and representatives from Tactical Tech purchased 1 million profiles from the broker site USDate for just $153. According to the site’s description, USDate sells only “genuine profiles created by real people who are actively seeking dating partners.”

The database included user profiles from various dating sites, including Match, Tinder, Plenty of Fish, and OkCupid. For a relatively small sum, the researchers obtained a large amount of information, including usernames, age, occupation, gender, sexual orientation, email addresses, interests, and 5 million photos.

Moll reached out to the dating sites for comment regarding the sale of user data, but did not receive any response.