Tinder has pretty much revolutionised the dating landscape since its 2012 launch, with tens of millions of people frantically swiping away every day in the hunt for their next romance.
The app also makes a big deal of retaining your privacy, which makes it tempting for potential cheaters who aren’t willing to leave the sofa to indulge their infidelity.
Seemingly aware of this, a new website aims to help people who are paranoid about their partners being unfaithful on Tinder by letting them conduct a full search of the person’s name and usage history on the app.
The aptly named Swipe Buster simply asks for the full name and address details of the suspected eye wanderer, and providing you’re willing to cough up the $4.99 (£3.50) asking price – which allows you three searches – it will provide a list of everyone with matching details, as well as information about when they were last active.
Sounds sneaky, right? Well, apparently everything the site does is above board. According to Vanity Fair, Swipe Buster uses Tinder’s application programming interface, or A.P.I, which stories all of the aforementioned user information and makes it readily accessible to anyone ‘with a certain understanding of computer code’.
On first impressions, a website that charges you just under the price of a pint for the convenience of checking up on your other half, without needing to resort to the often-explosive face-to-face confrontation, seems opportunistic and a bit tacky. But the anonymous tech entrepreneur behind site said that was not the intention.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, he explained: “There is too much data about people that people themselves don’t know is available. Not only are people oversharing and putting out a lot of information about themselves, but companies are also not doing enough to let people know they’re doing it.”
It’s an interesting argument, although the bright orange “BUSTED” banner in the on-site demonstration doesn’t do too much for Swipe Buster’s noble public service image. Still, it’s less risky than setting up your own Tinder account for detective purposes. After all, that way they could catch you first.
