Tinder is currently under fire for the rollout of its latest feature Tinder Social, which basically lets users create "groups" to swipe and match with locally. People on Tinder are outraged, however, because Tinder Social outed Tinder users on Facebook without their consent when it first launched.
The beta version of the new feature was only made available to users in Australia, with an eventual goal of going global after Tinder got feedback and worked out the kinks. They were met with overwhelming criticism, however, when users discovered that they were being outed as desperate, thirsty Tinderellas to all their Facebook friends who were also on Tinder.
The feature basically lets users create Tinder Social "groups" with their Facebook friends, which can then swipe on other groups locally, and, if matched, they can see each other's locations and begin chatting with the goal of meeting up at nearby bars, etc — very much like the social app Squad. According to Tinder's blog post about the feature, "It’s a way to go places full of people you’ve already matched with, making socializing so much easier once you’re out and about."
Unfortunately, Tinder Social wasn't launched as an opt-in feature. Users were just immediately dumped into the group-making pool, which means that everyone could see which of their Facebook friends were on Tinder.
As Daily Dot pointed out, plenty of Facebook users have photos on their Tinder profiles which are not necessarily on their Facebook profiles — not to mention the fact that Tinder bios may not exactly be public Facebook profile-friendly. This could lead to a lot of Tinder users wishing they could unsee the date-trolling versions of their family members, co-workers, colleagues, and casual acquaintances with whom they may happen to be Facebook friends.
Tinder addressed this problem with an update, stating:
Any user who would prefer not to be added to groups can opt out of Tinder Social through his/her settings to no longer appear on their friends' lists. We are only testing it at this point, but it's important to note Tinder's not a secret considering 70 percent of users download Tinder because their friends recommend it.
But while there is an option to turn off the function of being added to groups, users are still being automatically drafted into Tinder Social without notification, getting added to groups automatically when they're invited, and they're not being notified when others are added to their groups.
Hopefully, about a dozen more layers of privacy options and notification settings are added before a global rollout of the feature or else you and your Auntie could accidentally wind up on the same group date to your local Benihana.
