Tinder rolls out in-app access to background checks, powered by nonprofit Garbo

It’s kind of a real issue that most women are really shy and uncomfortable around randos and hide their identities online, rightfully so because of men who are just awful towards random women they see and end up stalking and harassing them. It would be really nice if there was a way to just filter out creepy and rude people.

But I have a feeling this particular service won’t actually flag work and will end up being useless. And flagging people for no discernible reason or worse, flagging some ethnicities or unrelated characteristics more than others will open Tinder up to lawsuits.

Considering a large part of Match's business model is essentially fraud, I'm not sure how this is going to work.

I haven't used an app in years since I had a very scary experience. I'm much happier now, and I'd advise anyone who wants to safeguard their mental well-being to delete this stuff. The vast majority of guys will never meet a quality partner online.

Sure you might "meet" someone who's 34 and she doesn't want to work or anything, and she expects you to send her money before she even meets up.

Or you can just be a social person in real life. I've had no trouble meeting tons of fantastic people, when I think about it. Everyone I've gone out with since I deleted the apps has been college educated with a great career. I never met a single person who had a decent job online. At most, maybe someone works 10 hours a week at Vons or something, and that's all they can do in their 30s.

Overall, social media in terms of meeting people is not a good idea. There's a near constant anxiety of checking or matches, of seeing if someone's even typing on Snapchat, blah blah blah.

Versus how I live my life, where I give a girl my number and if she's interested she's interested. This is how I've met practically all of my recent partners, and they've all been amazing.

From Garbo's FAQ:

>Garbo is not intended to be used for the following purposes: Employment Screening Tenant Screening Credit or Insurance Hiring of Household Workers Educational Qualifications Volunteer decisions Stalking or harassing an individual Any other reason prohibited by the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Translation: We want to run a background check service without actually making sure these checks are accurate.

What a horrible idea. Let's imagine someone, Sarah, when Sarah was 19 she got arrested for shoplifting in Arizona. Then she's turned her life around. Then she meets a guy named Brad, who uses this disgusting service to figure out where she's from, and a host of other personal information.

Given dating apps are already used largely for fraud, this is just makes lives easier for scammers. Not only will the average guy never meet someone, but now you can get your identity stolen too!

> When Garbo surfaces its results, Tinder users can choose what they want to do next. If the person’s results indicate they have a history of violence, for example, the user will be encouraged to report the match to Tinder.

If I found out that my date did a background check on me, that would be a violation of my trust. I don't have anything to hide, but that doesn't mean you should be trying to uncover my background.

Yikes.