At Match Group, we believe every user should feel confident that their privacy is being protected online. It is at the core of the way we design and build the services that our users know and love, so that they can fully trust the experience and focus on building meaningful connections.

We implement strong privacy standards globally at all of our brands, regardless of where the brand or their users are located. We collect only necessary and proportionate data, are transparent in the way we process it, obtain strong security and confidentiality commitments from our vendors, and delete data when it is no longer necessary. For up-to-date and in-depth information about our platforms’ privacy practices, we encourage you to read their individual policies. 

We do not track your digital behavior

We only collect the data we need to provide the best service possible. We don’t track, and thus don’t collect any data about your activity on other websites or platforms.

We collect information when you sign up for an account

When you use our platforms, the first step is to create an account. As part of that process, we collect personal information from you that will help build your profile to make it easier to find and be visible to the people you’re looking for. For example:

• We ask for your birthdate to make sure you’re at least 18 years old and to show your profile to users who are looking for people in your age range.
• We ask for your gender to better match you with people with that preference.
• We ask for your location so that you can be seen by people looking to meet someone in your area.
• We ask for your contact information, including email addresses and phone numbers, to allow you to sign in to your app, secure your account, and facilitate communication with you.
• Some of our services allow you to create an account or complete your profile using some information from your social media accounts.

We process information generated as you use our services

As you use our service, technical data about which features you’ve used and how you’ve used them is generated. We use this data to provide our services to you and improve them.

Different Match Group platforms collect different types of data

Each Match Group product may ask for different inputs to create an account and build your personalized profile. In addition to collecting general information, some of our platforms ask different questions as a way to curate a profile that will help find matches. For more information on what data each Match Group product collects, we refer you to our services and their respective privacy policies.

We collect information to block underage people

Our dating services are not intended for anyone under the age of 18 and users under the age of 18 are not permitted to use our platforms or be active on our platforms. To make sure this is the case, we collect the birthdates of everyone who registers an account on our platforms. Some of our brands also scan photos and profiles for red flags and maintain databases of known offenders to help keep underage users off of the platforms. Human moderators review accounts that have been flagged either by automated systems or by user reports, and act on those reports accordingly. We make every effort to ensure that minors stay off our dating platforms.

We use data to help you find the best matches

The data you give us as you create an account and complete your profile informs us about who you are and who you are looking to meet, so we can help you make the most relevant connections. This is our ultimate goal: to help you create meaningful connections and find the right matches through our platforms. 

For example: if you’re a 45-year-old woman who lives in North Carolina looking for a man 40+ who lives nearby, we use that information to help you find people who meet those parameters on the platform. 

We use location so you can meet people near you

Most of the time, our users are looking to meet in real life, so understanding where people are located is important. Many people are not able to or do not want to travel more than a specific distance to meet a match. Your location information helps us match you with people in your area who may want to meet in person. 

We process usage information to improve our service

Using our services generates technical data that we use to provide our service to you and improve it over time. This may include device data, technical logs, how you use our features, etc. For instance, we may decide to change the look and feel of a new feature based on how people react to or use it.

We limit access to data to employees on a strict need-to-know basis

We implement strict access controls to make sure that employees only have access to information about our users where they need it to operate our service. These employees adhere to strict privacy and confidentiality guidelines.

We implement strict security protocols to protect your data

Match Group maintains strong administrative, technical and, physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against accidental, unlawful, or unauthorized destruction, loss, alteration, access, disclosure, or use. We also regularly review and monitor applicable security controls for securing data.

We use identification information to block minors or bad actors

Match Group invests millions of dollars annually in its network of sophisticated tools, systems, and processes to prevent, detect, and remove people who engage in inappropriate behavior from our apps. This includes automatic scans of profiles for red-flag language and images; manual reviews of suspicious profiles, activity, and user generated reports; freezing suspicious accounts pending review; and blocking email addresses, phone numbers, and other identifiers.

To understand more about how we keep our users safe, please visit our Safety Center here. 

You can always choose to delete your account

As a leading provider of dating and social discovery apps, we want you to have options. That includes being able to delete your account(s) at any time.

We delete information when it is not needed anymore

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for legitimate business purposes as permitted or required by applicable law and as laid out in our services’ privacy policies.

This means that we typically keep information while you have an account with us since we need it to provide the service to you. Once you delete your account, the account is not visible on the service anymore. From there, we delete information subject to our legitimate interests, including legal requirements to retain data for litigation purposes and working to remove bad actors and keep them off our platforms.

You keep control over the personal information we process about you

Regardless of where our services are established or where you are located and regardless of whether your local law grants you this right, you can request a copy of the data we process about you. Follow the instructions laid out in our services or contact customer service for instructions on how to obtain your copy.

Our business is not dependent on advertising

Unlike other technology companies, our revenue and success is not driven by monetizing users’ data for advertising sales, but rather by providing valuable and enjoyable platforms for which our users willingly and directly pay us. Indeed, our revenue model is overwhelmingly subscription-based, with less than 3% of our revenue coming from advertising sales. 

The reason our advertising revenue is so low compared to virtually all other online providers is that we unilaterally and purposefully limit the types of data we use for advertising purposes. In particular, we do NOT use sensitive data, such as sexual orientation, racial or ethnic origins, religion, or precise geolocation data for third-party advertising.

We only use well-vetted providers

We use third parties to assist with technical operations and provide our overall services, similar to many other apps and online platforms. We only share the specific information deemed necessary to operate our platform, in line with the applicable laws, and only use vendors that we have vetted based on our security and privacy standards. We require from these vendors strict contractual commitments around the confidentiality and security of users’ personal information.

We honor users’ cookie preferences

Like most providers of online services, we use cookies and similar technologies to remember your preferences, secure your account, help us understand which features are most or least popular, personalize ads, allow you to use social features and, more generally, to improve your experience on our services.

Instructions on how to change your cookie settings vary depending on the device you use to access our services. In addition to the settings built-in to the device that you use (typically in your browser if you’re using a computer or in your operating system settings if using a mobile device), most of our services give you even more granular control over the types of cookies used. 
 

We follow all state, federal, and international laws

Match Group complies with all state, federal, and international laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union (EU) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in California. 

We implement GDPR-level policies globally

The GDPR is a regulation on data protection and privacy in the EU which went into effect in 2018. All of our brands’ policies are based on the robust standards established under the GDPR, which we have started rolling out globally to all of our users, whether they are in the EU or not.

We involve experts from various fields, including legal, security, engineering, and product design to make sure that decisions we take and features we design reflect our utmost respect for users’ privacy.

We support comprehensive privacy legislation

Unlike some other online service providers, we’re not opposed to more robust privacy regulation for online services. We believe that it is our responsibility to work with governments, lawmakers, and regulators all over the world to help to develop and shape better standards in data privacy.

We have and continue to strongly support privacy laws that protect consumers and generate trust.