Badoo, Happn, Bumble, Grindr… beware, a flaw allows you to be tracked

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A new study shows that there has real reasons to be wary of location sharing on dating apps. The team of researchers from the Belgian university of KU Leuven explains that although approximate, this information can be exploited by moving in three different directions – before triangulating the user's position, sometimes to within just two meters.

A bit complex, certainly, but it still means that a malicious actor can thus find your current position, or even follow you home… not very reassuring. In total, the researchers tested this technique on the following 15 apps: Tinder, Badoo, POF, MeetMe, Tagged, Grindr, Tantan, Jaumo, LOVOO, hapn, Bumble, Hinge, Hily, OkCupid, and Meetic.

Dating apps don't fully protect your location

Badoo, Bumble, Grindr, happn, Hily, and Hinge were found to be particularly vulnerable, allowing researchers to pinpoint a person's location with great precision. They detail how these apps allow anyone to obtain the same sensitive information, without any knowledge of coding or hacking the app itself.

The technique is called “oracle trilateraration“. And it works even when the app is vague about the exact distance, such as simply talking about “nearby profiles”. First, the malicious actor will use the filters to select a profile that is close to them. Once they have made their choice, they will then move in a straight line in increments, until the profile in question disappears from the list.

He must then report on a map the position at which the profile disappeared from those close to him. Then he retraces his steps and starts again in another direction, and this in order to end up with three points on a map at a specific position. From there, it is enough with a little mathematics to triangulate the position of the victim.

The researchers explain that all the dating applications targeted by the problem have since changed their algorithm to avoid guessing the exact GPS coordinates of a profile in this way. But the possibility of triangulation remains there, even if it is a priori much less precise.

This discovery reminds users to be careful about the information they share in these applications. In general, it's best to turn off location sharing when possible and instead list your city or more general location on your profile.

• Even if it seems vague, the location of dating app users can betray your GPS position.
• Researchers have even shown that some apps were able to triangulate a user with an accuracy of up to 2 meters until recently.
• Which is a good reason to be cautious.

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