As we have been discussing in recent months, . From the toilet paper boom at the beginning of the pandemic to later flour, yeast, weights or portable swimming pools, there have been several products and services that have generated interest and that have seen a significant increase in consumption.
Confinement has not only led us to bake cakes or practice more sports, but there has also been a boom in downloads to flirt and in sales of erotic products. According to a and involving more than 8,000 people, among those under 35 years of age, the use of Badoo has experienced a rebound of 52%; Wapo 35%; from Grindr 24%; and Tinder 94%. In counterpart, among those over 35, the figures have plummeted instead of increasing, reaching down to 38% in cases such as Grindr or Tinder.
The quintessential online dating app, Tinder, reveals that since the state of alarm was decreed, the conversations between matches have increased their duration by 26% and the number of messages per member has also increased, in this case by 30%. In fact, Spain is one of the European countries where this platform is being used the mostfollowed by Italy, and .
Tinder, the platform “to meet people”
Today we focus on the Tinder platform to tell you about one of the biggest investigations that has been done on the company. To put us in context, Tinder is, as explained on its own website «the most popular app to meet people«. And they appear like this «think of us as your trusted companion, wherever you go, we will be there. If you’re here to meet new people, network, get closer to the locals when you’re on the road, or just because you like living life, you’ve come to the right place.«.
And about its operation, what do we know? This is how they describe it on their website: «Match. Chat. Remains. Using Tinder is easy and fun: just swipe right if you like someone, or left if you pass. When someone reciprocates, it’s a match! We have invented a system in which a match is only achieved when the interest is mutual. Without stress. No rejection. You just have to select the profiles that interest you, chat online with your matches, and then put your mobile aside to meet them in person and build something together.«. This is the official version, the most superficial version, but today we are going to dig a little deeper to see how the application works «with the largest community of singles in the world, and the hottest!«.
Judith Duportail and “The Algorithm of Love”
The story begins with the prestigious French journalist as the protagonist. At 28, Judith broke up with her partner and after the breakup, she started a new direction: she went back to the gym and yes, she turned to Tinder again. And likewise it is explained on the back cover of his latest book ««:
«After a first moment of euphoria and ego boost when the matches ―or flirts, in Tinder parlance― happen one after another, Judith discovers something unexpected that shocks her and feeds her curiosity in equal parts: the app has and saves hidden in its server a “note of desirability” of each user. The impossibility of accessing this note will make you undertake an investigation in order to discover how the application really works, what private and sensitive information each user has and what use he makes of it, and at the same time also find out how desirable it is itself. ».
Indeed, one day he came across an article published by the Fast Company portal entitled «I regret discovering my secret desirability score on Tinder» in which a journalist told how, by chance talking to Sean Rad, the founder and CEO of Tindercame to know that in the app everyone has an “ELO”, a number that rates their desirability. This indicator is not a simple indicator of beauty or something punctual, but rather it is a complex system to evaluate the desirability of a profile considering a great variety of factors.
800 pages of your secrets
Judith, after reading that, decided to investigate more about this topic so he wrote to the company to request information about the platform’s algorithm to understand what information they had about it and how they used it. It was easy? No, so, after several unanswered requests, she decided to officially present herself as a journalist and to do so together with Paul-Olivier Dehaye, a well-known privacy activist, and Ravi Naik, a human rights lawyer.
This is how it worked and she received a total of 800 pages with all the data that Tinder had collected about her (including lots of matches and conversations) since the famous application had been downloaded in 2013.
«I received about 800 pages with information such as my likes on Facebook, my Instagram photos, my studies or the age range of men I was interested in.Judith explained.
In 2017, the journalist explaining how Tinder knows us practically better than we know ourselves (and almost almost, better than our mothers!) and considering what is behind this information and what use could be made of it if it is hacked or sold. Because besides, The information is obviously complemented by everything they collect from us on the Tinder platform itself..
They analyze, for example, how many times we connect, what kind of people are interested in us, what words we use or even how long people spend on our photo before seeing the next candidate. And no, it’s not that Tinder puts so much effort into finding our true love, it’s that all this also helps us spend time on the platform and improve the marketing of its advertising space. This is business.
What level of desirability do you have?
Our protagonist did not stop there. She kept researching this topic because she wanted investigate more in the real operation of the algorithm that categorizes users within the platform. And this already cost more so he had to try it in several ways: he sought influential support, he complained to data protection authorities,…
Despite not being able to get all the detailed information he was looking for, he did verify that the platform was based on the ELO ranking as discovered at the start. This level is awarded to each individual based on their history of results and is used in tournament rankings such as FIFA. FIFA? But what does it have to do with anything? Let’s investigate a little more.
The ELO ranking
ELO, that mysterious “desirability score”, subtracts points if a popular user on Tinder rejects you or if a person with a “poorly positioned” profile matches you. As you understand it: if the person who matches you is a popular person with a high level, you add points, but if that person is not popular and has a low level, and also ignores you, you subtract points. Inter alia.
It also influences the gender of users and their age. «Tinder reserves the possibility of evaluating us differently than men and everything that is in the patent leads to the match to men who are somehow dominant over women: either in terms of money, education or age«, . And, according to the journalist, the algorithm favors the meeting between older men and young women following up with him gender-role traditionalism «with which measures attractiveness based on your gender and age difference from your opposite to offer bonus points to older men and girls«.
And how do they manage to do that? What other aspects influence? This is where Rekognition comes into play, an artificial intelligence system created by Amazon, where photos are recognized and categorized. Through this identification and subsequent analysis of the data obtained, Tinder can estimate aspects such as the IQ of users or their general emotional state.
In addition, linked to what was previously mentioned about the information that Tinder collects, to analyze these aspects, it also considers things such as the average number of words we use per sentence or how many words with more than three syllables we write. «People with the same level of attractiveness are more likely to understand each other»they acknowledge in their patent.
Tinder chooses for you (and for all your partners)
And if you are interested in finding out more about this topic, the book «The algorithm of love» de Duportail explains all these investigations in detail and concludes with an interview with Sean Rad, from Tinder. This is a study to get to know the guts of Tinder, which, along with many other companies such as the mythical Facebook network, makes us question and reflect on the approach and operation of this type of platform and the use of our personal data.
And it is that as the journalist concludes, «Tinder decides for me who I can meet, touch, love. An immense power over my person, my life and my body«.
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