Tinder Embraces Encryption

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has managed to get Tinder to encrypt the photos sent between its servers and its app. The 69-year-old Senator wrote a letter to Tinder back in February requesting that the company encrypt photos. They apparently already implemented the feature, but "waited to write back to Wyden until it also adjust a separate security feature that makes all swipe data the same size," reports The Verge. "The size of the swipe data was used by security researchers to differentiate actions from one another. That change wasn't implemented until June 19th."

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[Sique]

Too low for what? If you are defining a "right" birth rate, you first have to argue why you think this is right.

Apparently, birth rates shrink if two factors come together: 1) Child mortality rates sink so you can expect with high probability that your own children will grow up. 2) You don't have to rely solely on your own family members if you reach a high age.

Birth rates shrink everywhere, also in so called Third World countries. The only places that see high birthrates right now are country with very

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[Sique]

And why would we need to sustain a population? This is no value per se. And if we want less pensions, people have to work longer until retirement.

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[Kjella]

Birth rates shrink everywhere, also in so called Third World countries. The only places that see high birthrates right now are country with very long civil wars going on, like Afghanistan or Congo, both which have civil wars which date back to the 1970ies.

Not only those places, birth rates are also very much a cultural thing and countries like Nigeria [worldometers.info] still have a birth rate of 5.5 kids/woman even though the GDP/capita has been growing quite a bit because that must become the new normal. I also think you forgot a 3) Women have their own education, career and life rather than be child-bearing/raising housewives married away at 15. Obviously if you dedicate 50% of your economic/leisure potential to raising kids you can have your own soccer team. While in the w

Re: Disgusting

[triffid_98]

If you are living in France or Japan you already know what "too low" looks like. If you live in certain other countries with 6 guys for every job *cough* Italy, you know the reverse... although that's not even their fault this time, it's all team Merkel

Re: Insanely clueless. Snake oil like DRM.

[Zero__Kelvin]

Actually encryption does exactly that every day, all day. It is sad, but alas no longer uncommon, to see such a pathetically ignorant post on Slashdot.

Re: Insanely clueless. Snake oil like DRM.

[Zero__Kelvin]

Again, this is common knowledge and doesn't mean encryption doesn't work; it merely means things that have been successfully decrypted are no longer encrypted. No shit Sherlock.

Re: Pathetic straw man.

[Zero__Kelvin]

Yeah. It is useless.... Banks don't have online services. It could never work! Yes, you are a fucking moron.

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[drinkypoo]

Nobody said encryption doesn't work. I said it is as pointless as a huge steel door with no walls left and right of it.

That's a stupid thing to say.

Encryption does part of the job. Other kinds of security do the rest of the job. The job doesn't get done without encryption, which makes it the opposite of pointless.

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[serviscope_minor]

it's a pretty common attitude here and comes up on every subject from programming, tech in general, discrimination, climate change, pollution, electric cars, space progress and politics and privacy, namely if we can't have a solution instantly which does everything perfectly, then we shouldn't bother at all. Taking steps towards a better solution seems right out.

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[Anonymous Coward]

It's not for DRM or IP management at all, it's for privacy. The purpose of end-to-end encryption is so you can receive the data you want without the whole world knowing what you received. You know, one of the basic purposes of web-based SSL.

If you don't care about the world knowing who you swipe right on, fine. But there's a whole lot of people who might.

Why are people here so STUPID?

[Anonymous Coward]

You too *completely* missed the point.

Nobody said encryption does not work.
I said what is the point, if the whole FUCKING point of Tinder is to share your swipable pictures with everyone in your area?

That by definition already makes the picture public!
L

Not even mentioning the fact that the Tinder client itself written by an untrusted party.
Let alone that said app includes the decryption key, enabling the recipient (which includes every single Tinder employee and contractor, including the entire CA company)

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[Anonymous Coward]

encrypting the photos is to reduce snooping of traffic and compiling data from that, like by carriers, hackers and taps on the wifi and the backbone and such, not to protect the data once it's on your device (that's the job of the hardware and software running on it)...

so the senator is not the clueless one here, you are, for not actually comprehending what this is about.

one down many features to go

[Anonymous Coward]

Now they just need to stop all the fake users, and stop the spamming

"Everyone's photos"?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I just checked my childhood album and I can still recognize myself. They did a poor job.

Did some Wyden staffer write that summary?

[msauve]

"Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has managed to get Tinder to encrypt..."

No, he didn't. Tinder's letter said they started encrypting on Feb 6. Wyden's letter asking they encrypt was dated Feb 14.

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[Mal-2]

Even without that, all he could have done in this short a time frame is get them to do what they already wanted to do, only sooner. If they didn't already have this in the works at the time of the request, it wouldn't be done by now.

Election year

[tomhath]

Mitt Romney is running for the Senate seat Orin Hatch is leaving. You'll be hearing more from the Democrats related to all the wonderful things they do in Utah, like this - taking credit for making the Internet safe for your children even though Wyden muddled in after the fact.

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[gumbi west]

Who will threaten to blow up our computers if we download music without Orin Hatch?

Re: Election year

[triffid_98]

Tipper Gore?

Wonder why Wyden cares about Tinder...

[ayesnymous]

hmm

Seriously?

[shplopt]

I know I shouldn't be shocked - shocked! - to hear this, but the idea that they just didn't bother to encrypt photos is a simply breathtaking feat of negligence.