Photo-based suggestions – Tinder

In some markets, you can choose to let us scan your camera roll when you sign up for Tinder or when you edit your profile to help you set up your profile faster. We use what we learn from your photos to suggest photos, bios and prompts you might want to add. You stay in control – nothing is added to your profile unless you choose to add it.

What are photo-based suggestions?

When you opt in, a scan of your camera roll occurs directly on your device to analyse photo quality and content. This helps give you a more personalised profile and experience on Tinder. This includes, for example:

Personalised photo suggestions: we’ll suggest photos you might want to add to your profile. These suggestions are based on what we know about the types of photos that perform well, personalised using patterns and insights about you identified in your camera roll. Biometric data may be processed on your device to help ensure that photo suggestions include you. Tinder does not access, receive or otherwise process any biometric data from this process. You choose which photos you want to upload to your profile. We won’t add photos to your profile without your permission.
Personalised profile set-up: where this feature is available during profile set-up, we’ll also use what we learn from your photos to suggest interests to add to your profile, as well as potential topics for your “About me” and prompts you can use to build your profile. You choose which interests and content are added to your profile.

How your data is used

As part of camera roll scanning, some of your photos are temporarily uploaded to Tinder’s servers and shared with our AI technology provider to help identify themes and patterns in your photos.

The insights from your photos will be used to help Tinder personalise your experience and better connect you with others. We may also analyse these insights to help us improve the feature.

Photo and other suggestions

If you opt in to camera roll scanning, we perform a scan on your device to understand the types of photos you have, like close-ups, full-body shots, group photos or themes such as travel or pets. We do this by using automated technology that analyses visual patterns in your photos. Based on these patterns and what we know about what performs well on Tinder, a set of photos is selected and uploaded to Tinder, and we suggest a few photos you might want to add to your profile. The goal is to help you pick clear, diverse photos that show different sides of you. The uploaded photos are promptly deleted, unless you add any to your profile. We also use the insights from your photos to suggest interests or topics that you might want to add to your bio. No photos or other suggestions are added to your profile unless you want them to be – you stay in control.

In some cases, photo or other suggestions may reference themes that relate to cultural, religious, political, lifestyle or other potentially sensitive topics based on patterns identified in your photos. You choose whether to add these to your profile, and you can always update the profile photo(s), bio(s) or interest(s) you’ve added, at any time, in your “Edit profile” settings.

How is biometric data used for photo suggestions?

When you opt in to camera roll scanning, you enable the on-device processing of biometric data to find and suggest photos of you. The way this works varies by market. Read below for more details about how your data is processed. In each case, the processing takes place entirely on your device – no biometric data from the camera roll scanning feature is accessed by, shared with or otherwise processed by Tinder.

Suggesting a profile photo or taking a video selfie

We will suggest an eligible profile photo for you to use, if you have one. Tinder uses a privacy-preserving tool to detect which of your profile photos has an outline of a face, without generating any biometric data or collecting details about the features of your face. This process happens entirely on your device.

Alternatively, you may have the option to take a selfie. If you do this, we use your selfie to identify photos of you in your camera roll, as described in this section. Your selfie is deleted when you exit the feature.

Biometric data is generated from either your profile photo or your selfie, and then compared to the photos in your camera roll. Tinder doesn’t collect, store, access or otherwise receive any biometric data generated from your selfie, profile photo or photos on your camera roll. Instead, everything takes place entirely on your device, and the biometric data used as part of this feature is deleted from your device once you exit the feature.

Using a reference photo from your camera roll

In some markets, you may have the option to identify a reference photo of yourself from your camera roll. To do this, when you opt in to camera roll scanning, similar faces in photos on your camera roll are grouped together, and you will be prompted to confirm which represents you. This process happens entirely on your device. When you confirm a photo is you, a Face Reference, which may be considered biometric data, is compared to the photos in your camera roll to help identify photos of you and is stored locally on your device to make future rescans faster. Your Face Reference is deleted when you log out of Tinder, and you can reset and delete it at any time as follows:

Go to Settings
Scroll and find “Photo Suggestions”
Tap “Stored Face Reference” and select “Delete Face Reference”

Note: for some users in Australia, during onboarding, similar faces in your camera roll photos are grouped together, and the face that appears most frequently is automatically used to create a Face Reference, which may be considered biometric data, that generates your photo suggestions. If a suggested photo doesn’t look like you, you can tap “Not you?” to switch to a different face, or go through the manual flow to pick your own photos. Once you finish onboarding, the Face Reference is saved until you log out or delete it in Settings, as described above.

Limitations

The technology used to create suggestions is designed to be helpful and to exclude photos or suggestions that might violate our Terms of Use or Community Guidelines, but the technology is not 100% accurate. It may occasionally suggest photos that do not meet your personal preference or may misinterpret a lifestyle theme. Remember, while this tool is intended to help you, you are ultimately responsible for the photos and information you choose to add to your profile; please ensure they follow our Terms of Use, Community Guidelines and local laws.

Also keep in mind:

Eligibility: if you don’t have enough photos, then photo and other suggestions may not be available. If you opt in to camera roll scanning but don’t have enough photos, we will periodically check your camera roll for new photos to determine if you have enough photos to become eligible. If you are setting up your profile during sign-up and don’t have enough photos, you can still build your profile manually.
Scanning continuity: if interrupted, the scan will resume the next time the app is open, until complete.
Rescanning: if you choose to rescan your camera roll, previous suggestions will be replaced with new ones from the latest scan.

Opting out or deleting your data

You are in control of what is shown on your profile. You can also opt out of camera roll scanning entirely.

Suggested photos: only the suggested photos you choose are added to your profile. You can remove suggested photos at any time in your “Edit profile” settings.
Camera roll permissions: you can adjust or remove camera roll access at any time through your device’s system settings.
During sign-up: you can skip the camera roll scan entirely or not use any suggested photos, bio and prompt topics, interests or other profile suggestions.
After sign-up: you can remove suggested photos, interests, bios or prompts at any time in your “Edit profile” settings.

More Help

If you need more help, please contact us with more details and we’ll be happy to assist.

Visit our Privacy Policy to learn more about our privacy practices and Your Rights. You can also learn how to request a copy of your data.