Same-Sex Dating App Gives Away Your Exact Location, Even When You Tell It Not To

Abstract

Three researchers from the Kyoto University in Japan have discovered that three of the most popular same-sex dating apps today are disclosing the user’s geographical location, even if they have turned off this feature in the app’s settings. Called trilateration, or triangulation, the technique determines the location of a geographical point by the measurement of distances. If the threat actor knows the distance to a target from two different points, they can obtain two possible positions for their target. If the attacker knows the distance to a target from three separate points, they can then pinpoint their exact location. This type of attack was already known to most dating app makers, especially the ones for same-sex dating services, which a few years back added an option in the user profile page that allowed them to hide their location.