Grindr and Bumble top the list of the most data-hungry dating apps

You have tried Tinder or Bumble at least once, haven’t you? With millions of active monthly users, dating apps are among the most popular apps for many. However, as the media has just announced Headero’s data leak⁶ — with thousands of user records and millions of chat records exposed — it raises a huge question: how much do dating apps really know about us?

Well, it’s not only your name, location, phone number, and photos or videos that they collect. Like it or not, dating apps (along with third parties or data brokers, to be more accurate) collect sensitive information such as racial or ethnic data, sexual orientation, pregnancy or childbirth information, disability status, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, genetic information, and biometric data.

Are you now thinking it’s better to keep all the juicy info for the real date? We’ve got you.

Key insights

• All analyzed dating apps collect your location, name, phone number, photos or videos, user and device IDs, purchase history, and sensitive information such as racial or ethnic data, sexual orientation, pregnancy or childbirth information, disability status, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, genetic information, and biometric data. The most data-hungry dating app is Grindr, which collects 24 data types, followed by Bumble (22), Plenty of Fish (18), Tinder (16), Hinge (15), and Headero (9).
• Dating apps not only collect extensive personal and sensitive information but may also combine this data with information from third parties to enable targeted advertising. Additionally, data collected from your app about you or your device can be shared with data brokers¹, further increasing your exposure and the risk of your information being used in unexpected ways. This practice is known as ‘tracking’. While all analyzed dating apps (except Headero) collect data for tracking purposes, Bumble is the leader, collecting four data points in total: email address, location, device ID, and advertising data.
• We conducted a survey in the US², asking people about their use of various phone apps, including Bumble. Only 6% of respondents said they currently have Bumble installed on their phone, while 16% reported using it in the past but no longer do. Among those who have tried the app, usage is most popular among the 25–34 age group (32%), followed by 35–44 (28%), 18–24 (21%), and those aged 45+ (19%). Additionally, 60% of current or past Bumble users are male, and 40% are female. The majority of Bumble users, 68%, reside in big cities — while 20% live in small towns and 11% in rural areas. This suggests that while Bumble is aggressive in data collection and tracking, its actual reach remains relatively focused on younger, urban, and male demographics.
• Besides potentially exposing your personal data when using dating apps, there is also a risk of interacting with fake profiles. It is estimated that around 10% of profiles are fake⁴. To put this in perspective, Tinder has about 75 million monthly active users, which amounts to 7.5 million fake profiles. This means there is a very high probability of encountering a fake profile at some point when using dating apps. These profiles are often created with the intent to deceive, scam, or manipulate others, which could lead to financial loss or emotional harm.
• Spotting a fake profile on a dating app can be challenging, but there are several red flags to watch for. Often, fake profiles use generic or overly glamorous photos that appear to be stock images or are taken from other social media accounts. You can use reverse image search tools like Google Images to check if their pictures appear elsewhere online. These profiles may have very limited information in their bios or give inconsistent answers during conversations. Another warning sign is when someone tries to move the conversation off the app unusually quickly or avoids answering personal, reasonable questions about themselves. If the person expresses strong romantic feelings after just a few messages or asks for money, gift cards, or other favors, this is almost always a sign of a scam. Trust your instincts, and if something feels off or too good to be true, proceed with caution or block and report the user to the platform for further investigation.
• Despite being the most data-hungry dating app and its past controversy over allowing users to filter matches by ethnicity⁵, Grindr is the highest-rated app in the Apple App Store, with a rating of 4.5 out of 5. Other analyzed dating apps are rated between 3.7 and 4.4. Grindr collects more data types than its competitors, including users’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, precise locations, sensitive information, email and text messages, search histories, and 17 additional data types. Nonetheless, Grindr’s high user rating shows that many still value the app’s experience over its data collection practices.
• Headero, the least popular app among those analyzed, recently had a data leak⁶ that exposed 352,081 user records, 3,032,001 chat records, and 1,096,904 chat room records. That seems like a lot, considering it has only 100K downloads in the Play Store. While Headero collects just nine data types, it still experienced a large-scale data breach, showing that users should be careful not to share too much information with any dating app and be mindful of conversations in the app, as they may not be as private as you would expect.

Methodology and sources

We analyzed the five most popular dating apps³ (Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, and Grindr) by reviewing their data collection disclosures on the Apple App Store. Additionally, we added Headero to the list because it recently had a major data leak⁶. From a list of 35 possible data types, we documented which types of data each app collects. Additionally, we examined Surfshark’s survey² conducted in April 2025 to assess Bumble’s user demographics in the USA. We also discussed fake profile statistics on dating apps and provided general information on how to identify them.

Data was collected from:

References: