Hinge Dating App: Match & Date Security & Privacy Scorecard

Android

78
Overall trust score
Acceptable
82
Security
77
Privacy

Profile activity and usage data is shared with Braze, AppsFlyer, and Firebase for marketing and analytics purposes. Location and behavioral data may be processed by Incognia for fraud detection. Analytics collection is consent-gated and all connections are encrypted.

Best for

Dating app users comfortable with standard analytics

Findings

  • 0 critical
  • 0 high
  • 4 medium
  • 3 low
  • 3 info

1 issue identified across security and privacy analysis.

Top security issues

  • Unencrypted SQLite database stores sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, politics, private chats, and location in plaintext — accessible on rooted devices
  • BrazeActionReceiver exported without permission allows any co-installed app to inject arbitrary GPS coordinates into Hinge's location analytics
  • Braze in-app message WebView JavaScript bridge exposes profile-mutation methods (setEmail, setPhoneNumber, setGender, etc.) to campaign-controlled HTML

Top privacy issues

  • Full contact book (all phone numbers and email addresses) uploaded raw to Hinge servers when using block-by-contact feature — no on-device hashing, affects non-consenting third parties
  • Incognia fraud SDK transmits Google Advertising ID and precise device location to a third-party vendor correlated with login, onboarding, and payment events
  • Five parallel analytics/attribution SDKs (Firebase, Braze, AppsFlyer, Incognia, Split.io) each receive behavioral data including GAID alongside sensitive profile attributes like sexual orientation and religion

Full analysis

Hinge Dating App: Match & Date

What This Means for You

Your most sensitive dating details, including sexual orientation, religion, relationship preferences, and private messages, are stored on your device without protection, meaning anyone with physical access to your phone could read them. Your full contact list is also sent to Hinge's servers, sharing the phone numbers and emails of people who never consented to this.

Recommendation: Use With Caution

Hinge handles network communications securely and gives users meaningful control over their data, but stores highly sensitive personal information locally without protection and shares behavioral data with multiple third-party companies. Users who share relationship preferences, sexual orientation, religion, or political views within the app should be aware these details are accessible on the device itself and tracked by several analytics services.

Best For: Mainstream daters comfortable with behavioral analytics and third-party data sharing in exchange for app features.

Key Findings

Data Security - 3 findings (1 medium, 1 low, 1 info)

Network Security - 1 finding (1 info)

Code Safety - 3 findings (2 low, 1 info)

Privacy - 3 findings (3 medium)

Privacy Concerns

What Data is Collected

  • Personal information: name, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, political views, relationship goals, and dating intentions
  • Location data: precise GPS and network-based location
  • Contact information: full address book including all phone numbers and email addresses
  • Usage and behavioral data: app interactions, preferences, matching activity, and session events
  • Device information: device model, operating system, carrier, timezone, and advertising identifier

Third-Party Data Sharing

The following third parties may receive your data:

  • Braze - CRM, in-app messaging campaigns, and user profile management
  • AppsFlyer - install attribution and advertising measurement
  • Incognia - fraud detection and device fingerprinting, including location and advertising identifier
  • Google (Firebase) - analytics, push notifications, authentication, crash reporting, and remote configuration
  • Split.io - A/B testing and feature experimentation
  • Sendbird - in-app messaging infrastructure
  • FaceTec - photo identity verification

Understanding the Scores

Security: 82/100
Privacy: 77/100

Security Breakdown

  • Data Security: 78/100 - Sensitive dating profile data and private messages are stored on your device without protection, though all network traffic is encrypted in transit.
  • Network Security: 100/100 - All communications use secure connections with no cleartext traffic detected.
  • Code Safety: 93/100 - Minor issues in third-party components; core app code follows solid practices.

Privacy Breakdown

  • Data Collection: 83/100 - Collects a broad range of personal details including highly sensitive categories such as sexual orientation, religion, and political views.
  • Data Sharing: 80/100 - Multiple analytics, attribution, and fraud-detection services each receive behavioral and device data.
  • User Control: 88/100 - Users can request data deletion and analytics collection is consent-gated by default.

Positive Security Features

  • Analytics collection is disabled by default and only activated with user consent
  • Device integrity verification is implemented with server-side challenge validation
  • All API traffic is transmitted over secure connections with no cleartext detected
  • Sensitive dialog windows are protected from screen capture

Areas for Improvement

GDPR / CCPA Compliance

The app's privacy practices could be strengthened by:

  1. Local Data Protection
    Encrypting the on-device database would ensure that sensitive dating profile details and private messages cannot be read without the user's active session, even if someone gains access to the device.

  2. Contact Handling
    The contact upload used for the block feature could be improved by processing contact matching on-device rather than transmitting raw phone numbers and email addresses to external servers, which would better protect people in your contacts who never agreed to share their data with a dating service.

  3. Analytics Transparency
    The app uses five separate behavioral data collection services. Disclosing which specific data each service receives, at the time consent is gathered, would give users a clearer picture of the data sharing involved.

Security Enhancements

  1. Screenshot Protection
    Extending screen capture protection to the dating feed, match list, and chat screens would prevent sensitive profile content from appearing in device task-switcher thumbnails or being captured by screen recording tools.

  2. Third-Party Component Permissions
    Restricting the broadcast permissions available to third-party SDK components would limit the ability of other installed apps to interact with location data collection features.

Technical Context

App Type: Dating app, Mature 17+ audience, handles highly sensitive personal data
Classes Analyzed: 2,000
Third-Party Services: 19
Context Tags: dating, social, location, sensitive_data, contacts, camera, ads

About This Analysis

This security analysis was conducted by CITT (Can I Trust That), an independent security analysis service. We perform static code analysis on Android applications to help users make informed decisions about app security and privacy.

App Details

Developer: Hinge, Inc.
Version: 9.116.0 (versionCode: 168200970)
Analysis Date: 2026-04-14
Package: co.hinge.app

Analysis Limitations

  • Static analysis only (code review without running the app)
  • Based on APK version 9.116.0 analyzed on 2026-04-14
  • May not reflect server-side security controls
  • Cannot detect all runtime behaviors

Versions & scan history

ScanDateOverall score
#2 (current) 78/100