Tinder alternatives affected
The popular dating app OkCupid has serious security issues and should have a slight aftertaste for many users. If hackers exploit known vulnerabilities, they can read the location of millions of users.
There are several advantages to meeting people through dating apps. Not only is data convenient on your smartphone, but it also creates a fairly reliable protective barrier between you and others. Many applications rely on anonymity when they first meet you, so you can stop intrusive contacts. Therefore, it is especially important if the application ignores this important feature. As reported by Cybernews, it is clear that using the Tinder alternative OkCupid can read the user's location for a long time with only a few meters of accuracy.
To this end, a so-called "man-in-the-middle" attack was performed through an additional proxy server. This causes the application's server request to be intercepted and read out. The unique location number assigned to the user is then displayed. This way, because the app updates its users' locations on a regular basis, as long as they are online at OkCupid, they can determine a person's location with an accuracy of 10 meters.
Cybernews also points out that the workload is very small, so using OkCupid poses a serious security risk to privacy. Sexual harassment is also common in dating apps. Women are particularly affected, and this vulnerability is much more severe than expected. After all, stalking or even personal attacks on users can be imagined.
Like Tinder, OkCupid is part of the American company InterActiveCorp. However, it is not currently possible to answer whether Tinder may also be affected by this question.