Tinder wants to offer ID verification worldwide

Tinder wants to make it possible for users worldwide to authenticate themselves with proof of identity. At the moment this is only possible in Japan. The dating app hopes that users will be open to this themselves and says that it will be on a voluntary basis for the time being.

In the coming quarters, ID verification will be available to users worldwide, writes Tinder. It is not yet clear exactly what that will look like and which documents users can use for verification. Tinder says it takes into account expert recommendations and user input. For each country, local legislation will be examined and which documents are ‘the most suitable’.

According to Tinder, verification with an ID will be voluntary for now, unless local law dictates otherwise. The company behind the app claims that the experience-based verification method will “evolve to ensure a fair, inclusive and privacy-friendly way of ID verification.”

A Tinder spokesperson told TechCrunch that ID verification will be used to verify that a user is registered as a sex offender in areas where it is possible to look it up. Tinder already does this with the credit card information the company gets when users make payments in the app.

In 2019, ID verification was introduced on Tinder in Japan. Users from the age of eighteen must upload an image of their passport, driver’s license or Health ID there. Tinder says it will use insights from Japan when deciding whether to introduce the option globally. The dating app wants to authenticate users for security reasons.

Earlier this year, Tinder introduced a background check partnership with non-profit organization Garbo. American Tinder users can use this to perform a background check of their matches in the future. That feature is expected later this year.