Tinder Pilots Mandatory Facial Recognition in California

Tinder is piloting a mandatory facial recognition feature called Face Check for all new users in California, requiring a short video selfie to verify users' identities and combat impersonation, catfishing, and bot accounts. The system matches the user's face to their profile photos and checks for duplicate accounts, awarding a verified badge upon successful verification. Face Check differs from the existing ID Check, which uses government-issued identification for age and identity verification. The video selfie is deleted after verification, while an encrypted, non-reversible face map is retained but deleted within 30 days if the account is closed. The feature has been previously tested in Colombia and Canada with promising results, and may be rolled out more widely if successful. This initiative comes as dating apps confront growing safety concerns and the FBI reports over 64,000 U.S. romance scam victims in 2023.