The rise of “catch a cheater” apps exploits our worst human tendencies

When people sign up for a dating site like Tinder, they don’t expect their profiles and personal information to be searchable, especially by a scorned lover, or worse. But that’s what popular apps like Cheaterbuster or CheatEye seem to do, under the guise of being able to “catch cheaters.”

Last week, 404 Media released a report on apps that apparently use facial recognition technology to track the dating profiles of private citizens, as evidence that those partners are unfaithful. Many of these services charge a one-time fee to locate a Tinder profile with just a name or a photo of the person’s face. (Some searches can earn you $18 per transaction.) 404 Media tested their technology by conducting searches on consenting subjects and precisely locating their dating profiles.

Without any context about why a person’s Tinder profile might exist, these transactions lack nuance and normalize a dangerous practice, one that nearly every data and privacy expert we spoke with has warned against using — some even advocating for their ban.

“The most insidious aspect is how these tools make peer-to-peer surveillance seem normal and acceptable,” says Heather Kuhn, a cybersecurity and privacy expert, assistant professor at Georgia State University School of Law and senior privacy advisor at a software company. “Marketing them through viral TikTok videos trivializes the act of biometric surveillance and conditions people to accept it as a solution to relationship problems.”

When Tinder users upload their images and all their identifying information – like where they live, went to school, even the last live location they opened the app – they are not agreeing to it being used in any other context outside of Tinder.

“They accept the platform’s terms and do not consent to having their data retrieved, indexed in a third-party database and made searchable via their biometric data,” explains Kuhn.

Mark Weinstein, a tech advisor who has written several books advocating safer online practices, says these third-party apps are “downright scary.”

“What is marketed as ‘fighting cheaters’ is really just vigilant surveillance,” Weinstein said. The edge. And while apps like Cheaterbuster most likely use facial recognition tools to locate dating profiles, they can also use a litany of public data to cross-reference names, ages and locations “to create ghost databases of dating profiles that Tinder never intended to make public,” Weinstein says. “This is massive data mining, connecting the dots about people without their consent.”

Some experts are shocked that Tinder hasn’t yet sought revenge on them. “It seems like this violates the app’s terms of service, so from that perspective, should it exist?” asks Marshini Chetty, a professor at the University of Chicago who teaches courses on usable privacy and security. “You’re doing something the company doesn’t condone – I guess I’m wondering why it hasn’t been shut down.”

Tinder did not immediately respond to our request for comment. Apps like Cheaterbuster and CheatEye also did not respond to requests for comment.

“This technology is typically between 90% and 99% accurate, with the best algorithms reaching 99% on high-quality images, but falling closer to 90% in real-world or lower-quality conditions,” Weinstein says, citing statistics from the Bipartisan Policy Center. “It’s a big gap that allows for a lot of mistakes.” (Facial recognition technology also disproportionately identifies people of color, experts warn.)

A blurry selfie can easily produce a false positive result, which will open people up to a host of messy, even violent, encounters between romantic partners. Regardless of worst-case scenarios involving stalkers and abusers, apps like these prey on the worst of our human tendencies.

“It thrives on suspicion and doubt. For a relatively low monthly fee, it offers an answer – or the illusion of an answer – to a deeply emotional question,” says Kuhn. “Even if it only works some of the time, the viral marketing and emotional reward of success is enough to sustain the business.”

“Catch a Cheater” apps may also violate already established data privacy policies, particularly the European GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation policy which was introduced in 2018 to protect user data across the EU. “In Europe, apps like this certainly violate GDPR, which gives users clear rights over how their personal data and images are collected, stored and used,” says Weinstein.

In the United States, however, privacy laws have been slow to be introduced and passed. And while there are no federal protections over how your personal data is collected or used, new state bills give consumers certain rights over their data and online image. One expert pointed to the landmark ruling by California’s CCPA, or the California Consumer Privacy Act, which gives people the right to know how their data is used or to be able to delete their data.

“What can be done? Legislative action is truly the only solution to fixing this mess,” Weinstein says. “The good news is that promising bipartisan efforts are underway, including COPPA 2.0, which would extend online privacy protections to everyone under the age of 18, and the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), which would give all Americans control over how their data is collected, shared and sold. These bills must immediately be moved to the forefront of the legislative agenda Congress and passed, then signed by President Trump. “

Although Trump signed the Take It Down Act earlier this year, which requires sites to remove nonconsensual deepfakes and other obscene images within 48 hours of a request, there is no indication that he will sign or increase priority on these issues. And given the government shutdown, which only seems to drag on, we cannot hold our breath waiting for these efforts to come to fruition any time soon.

Whether these apps are effective at proving adultery or locating the dating profiles of people in committed relationships, they will cause a cascade of new and worsening problems for romantic partners – all while normalizing surveillance and unhealthy and dangerous cyber practices. In an age where we blindly follow technological trends and innovations, abandoning our anonymity for opportunity, our right to privacy is slipping away every day.

“Everyone should have a basic expectation of privacy,” Chetty says, especially when you’re submitting your photos and information solely for dating purposes.

“I recommend people try to resolve their relationships without resorting to these apps,” she adds. “Maybe they should think about whether they should pursue a relationship if they use this service in the first place.”