Re:Scraping Tinder selfies to make a dataset for AI experiments
by nojvek on Monday May 08, 2017 @10:46AM
(#14291912)
Tinder is very cut throat. The whole social network values people based on their appearances. When I was single I had written a bot on their v1 API when Tinder was first on app store. I was curious of their security and social dynamics. No intent to release anything in public.
I had then created 5 different profiles of same picture, with different shades of skin color. Interesting results. I came to the conclusion that tinder wasn't for me. I had to try good ol' face to face interactions.
I'm sure Tinder and snapchat are a trove of data to help study the science of human mating. Releasing a dataset online is crazy although I wonder what would happen if tinder got hacked and their data published on bittorrent like the fapgate with celebrities that happened a while ago.
A security disaster like that is just waiting to happen.
Rather than (edit: in addition to) relying on protection, we should rely on personal safety practices. Using our own portraits as avatars may have been a mistake, in hindsight. I will recommend to my friends, that they teach their children to use a photo of their favorite toy or something, instead of their own face.