A "panic button" to send an SOS when a romantic date is likely to become dangerous: in the #MeToo era, Tinder is thinking about it, one of the most popular dating apps in the world. The new initiative, the Wall Street Journal reported today, is expected to debut in the US in late January. It will include the ability to send and receive feedback if one of the participants feels uncomfortable and even get the police to the gallant meeting place that risks degenerating into violence.
To offer the new service, Tinder's parent company, Match.com, purchased a share and a place on the board in Noonlight, a new app that tracks users' locations and informs the authorities if security issues emerge. Tinder, which has a global pool of 50 million users, will act as a test case: if the experiment is successful, Match.com will extend it to other apps in the coming months. The new initiative puts the spotlight on the need for online platforms such as Uber and AirBnb to invest more in the physical security of customers, even at the expense of privacy. Match.com has done market research and found that the vast majority of its users prefer to feel safe than to protect personal data as the meeting place in the dark.
"You have to run a dating app like you're a mom," said Match CEO Mandy Ginsberg, who has a 21-year-old daughter. "I think a lot about the safety of our platforms and what they can do to prevent bad behavior." For Tinder the investment in Noonlight is the first to monitor security in real time after the first contact of users on the platform and the face-to-face meeting for a coffee or a drink. Until now the app had used surveillance systems on the communication methods of the parties in particular to identify forms of abusive language or indecent photos.
With the new service, customers will be able to post a label on their profile to let them know they have the button: "It's like the sign you put on your lawn to let you know you have an alarm system," explained Elie Seidman, CEO of Tinder, according to whom this can already act as a deterrent. There is obviously the possibility of a false alarm coming to sabotage an appointment that is going very well: "It is a risk that we feel we are taking," Ginsberg told Wall Street newspaper: "We take into consideration false positives. If someone who accidentally pushed the button doesn't answer, someone will knock on the door at worst. It's not the worst thing in the world. "