If you’ve tried your hand at online dating you’ll know it can be (at times) a murky place.
More often than not you’ll be matched with a complete stranger. Someone with who you don’t have any mutual friends. Following the release of the Netflix doco ‘The Tinder Swindler’ and to address growing safety concerns from some users, Tinder’s parent company Match Group, Inc. (which also owns Hinge & OKcupid) has announced a new feature.
Match Group, Inc. has partnered with Garbo, a women-founded non-profit company that provides users with “more transparency and information about whomever they connect with”.
The program is designed to scan through public records and alert users if their match has any prior arrests or convictions, or if they’ve been registered as a sex offender.
All that’s required to perform a check is a full name and phone number. Once the details have been provided the process takes about three minutes to be completed.
Kathryn Kosmides, Founder & CEO of Garbo said; “We want to protect those most vulnerable to experiencing harm both online and offline and this is just the first step in delivering on our mission to help proactively prevent harm in the digital age.”
Users will get their first two background checks free of charge. Following that the service will cost $2.50 USD per search.
No word on when this feature will be rolled out in NZ, but we’ll keep you posted!
