Tinder and other apps belonging to the Match Group will allow its users to make history checks on possible dates. The company announced an investment in Garbo, a nonprofit organization that aims to allow people to do background checks with just their first name and phone number or full name. The investment, whose value was not disclosed by Match, will help make the group’s technology available to Match users, starting with the company’s most popular application: Tinder.
This means that Tinder users will be able to check their dates with details such as their arrest record or history of violence. This can drastically affect who is successful with the application and who is not. Garbo says he collects “public records and reports of violence or abuse, including arrests, convictions, restraining orders, harassment and other violent crimes,” and his website says he accepts “police reports, protection / restraining order orders and other documents. legal reports that report abuse, harassment or other crimes. ”(This manual function is not currently active.)
Notably, in a blog post published last month, Garbo said he would not disclose drug possession charges to take an “active stance on equity”. He cites research on the disproportionate percentage of blacks who are arrested on drug charges compared to whites. The company also says that drug-related crimes do not significantly predict “gender-based violence”, which is what the brand is primarily concerned with preventing. Garbo also does not report traffic violations.
Background checks on Tinder will not be free, but Match is working with Garbo to find out how to charge for them so that they are accessible to most users. It is not clear whether it will be an à la carte resource or linked to the brand’s subscription levels. The team will begin testing and developing features for Garbo on Tinder in the coming months, and as soon as Garbo integrates with Tinder, other brands from the U.S. Match Group, which include OkCupid, Hinge and Match, will be able to follow.
Garbo’s tool is not yet on the air, so we can’t test its accuracy, but it can change the feel of anonymous people in a dating app, especially on Tinder, which has consistently emphasized personal details like last name and full bio in profiles. Match does not share its users’ data with Garbo, but users can perform a background check as long as they get their boyfriend’s last name or phone number, which they would probably like to share anyway if they planned to move on with the relationship.