DateMe faces backlash as privacy concerns are exposed

September 27, 2018

SILVERIO LAND— Popular online dating app DateMe, which was originally started in 2015 as a knockoff of Tinder, has soared in popularity lately. With more apps being produced and rushed every minute, it's no wonder that the Silverish dating app has hit the trends. Haundrea Online Dating Application Co., Ltd, the app's developer, states that this newfound monetization has been caused as a result of the Silverish government's blocking of Tinder and Motrixsu, a dating app from Metroworld. However, there's one problem with DateMe—a very, VERY BIG problem: the app collects everything about you.

That's what SNT News revealed when they did an investigation on popular online dating apps. According to Dalohenga University, one of the top universities in Silverio World, the students at the Leur Evans School of Technology dug deep into the app's code and found several privacy-breaking commands:  %send% search email [insert-email-here] search domain [minasto.com.sil] search domain [picstar.sil] search domain [siwen.com.sil] search-friends [grab requests] [dt.me]  The first set of lines (shown above) were run once a user on DateMe signed up for the service. The app would search through the user's social media accounts for their friends and they would sync them to the app. Then, these commands would be run:  find? [request-for-ads] [request-send notify.xtm]   The app would request ads to the user and would run a file called notify.xtm. That file would execute a hidden file on the user's phone to send requests to the user's social media friends and would run a DateMe client (dtme.mgd), which would be sent to the phone listed as the user's romantic interest. Once that happens, a third command is run:  force? [location.xtm] on [client1] and [client2]  This command would eventually turn on the phone's location setting and prevent the user from turning the setting off. This is what is causing the uproar regarding the app. Even if the app is removed from the user's phone, location.xtm is still on the phone's internal storage, and can only be removed by accessing the device's filesystem and deleting it.

Once this discovery was found, the app's developer, HODA Company, filed a lawsuit against Dalohenga University, claiming they were "defamed." However, this led to a massive protest against the app, which led to massive protests online and across Silverio World. Things were made worse when Haundrea Police found out that the developers used a beta version of the app (the version without the code) to cheat their way onto the app store. The code was added in March 2018. HODA denied that they were involved in the situation, but soon admitted to the Haundrea Inquiry that they were responsible for the malicious code, hoping to make it "easier for users to find their dates online."

They have announced that a new update (version 1.13) will remove the offending code. The lawsuit has been dismissed and HODA will be working hard to make sure the code never gets added. They will also inform customers affected by the privacy scandal to have the malicious files deleted off their phones for a small fee of SP 240 (about $24).