1) The document discusses the ethical considerations of researching the dating app Tinder. It proposes two research methods: creating a researcher profile on Tinder to analyze user profiles manually or automatically, and conducting an online questionnaire. 2) Key ethical issues include informed consent, privacy, data ownership and storage when collecting and analyzing user data from Tinder. The terms of service also prohibit automated data collection. 3) Alternative approaches are proposed that are more participatory and open, like an online space for sharing stories and dialogue about how geo-location apps mediate travel experiences. Ethics are an ongoing practice as these digital contexts are dynamic.

1. The Ethics of Researching Tinder
Jenna Condie, Garth Lean, Brittany Wilcockson
Dr Jenna Condie CPsychol
Lecturer in Digital Research and Online Social Analysis
E: J.Condie@westernsydney.edu.au
@jennacondie
#SoMeEthics

2. Everyone’s swiping right?
A smartphone app used to meet up and/or hook
up with people

3. Positioning Tinder for travel
Travel as main revenue stream

4. Travel in the Digital Age
Flickr: Michael Coghlan (CC BY-SA 2.0)
New South Wales,
Australia had:
3.4m international
overnight visitors
27.4m domestic
overnight visitors
in 2014.
(Destination NSW, 2015)
Research website: www.tindaproject.com

5. Dialogical epistemology
RQ: How are social geo-tagging
(or location-based) apps
mediating travel experiences in
the digital age?
Student projects:
identity
presentation,
feminist analysis
Big data: Tinder
content analysis of
user profiles
Methodology:
Desire to carry
out research
‘in’ the digital
Qualitative: online
questionnaires
(digital storytelling
approach)

6. When does ethics start? Before the project!
• When research ideas originating from personal
experiences…
"I'm so ready
to be used for
academic
purposes"
”Have I just
become a case
study?”
• Should you be on
the platform?
• How to present
yourself?
• Professional-personal boundaries
• How have others handled their researcher
identities in similar research?

7. Research ‘in’ dating apps. Some examples…
Study Methodology Ethics
Race, K.
(2015).
‘Party and
Play’:
Online
hook-up
devices and
the
emergence
of PNP
practices
among gay
men. Sexual
ities,18(3),
253-275
Insider-Ethnography:
• Participant Observation
• Semi-Structured
Interviews (with members
of online community and
service providers)
• Historical and textual
data analysis – including
screen shots of personal
conversations the
researcher had with users
of the app.
Re: Using and reproducing screenshots
of personal conversations:
“Although no ethics approval was sought
specifically to undertake these personal
conversations (such approval would be
difficult if not impossible to obtain), the
committee did grant permission to collect
and reproduce this category of data, and
nothing should prevent bona fide
participants in sexual cultures from
representing their experiences of these
cultures in scholarly venues and using
these reflections to inform their analysis”
(p.258).

8. Research ‘in’ dating apps. Some examples cont…
Study Methodology Ethics
Holloway et al.,
(2014)
Acceptability of
smartphone
application-
based HIV
prevention
among young
men who have
sex with men.
AIDS and
Behavior, 18(2),
285-96.
Quantitative
Online survey (Likert scales or
dichotomous scales, and
demographic information)
Participants: Grindr users
within a 7 mile radius of the
researchers/University
1523 men invited to
participate via Grindr, of
which 25.6% responded and
agreed, and 12.9% completed
survey (N = 195)
Recruitment: researchers created
their own Grindr profiles
“The recruiters’ profiles contained the
institution’s name and identified the
recruiters as researchers; their profile
pictures were of the research
assistant or a stock photo.” (pp. 287)
Potential participants were sent a
private message from these
accounts; containing a code to the
online survey.

9. Applying for ethics
Plan A: Two methods: ‘in’ Tinder and ‘on’ geo-located
dating apps
1. Research ‘in’
Tinder
Set up
‘researcher’
Tinder account
(via Facebook
accounts)
Swipe within a
10k radius of
Sydney city
centre
‘Manual’
content
analysis of
user profiles
2. Research
‘on’ social geo-
location apps
Create online
questionnaire
via website
Recruit via
Tinder profile
and social
media
platforms
Quantitative
analysis &
Thematic
analysis
Approved. But then…

10. To scrap or not to scrap?
• Discovered an API method (via Facebook API) to
automate the content analysis of Tinder profiles
Key ethical considerations (largely remain the same!):
• Relationship between researchers and participants
• Informed consent as impractical to achieve
• Privacy (Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1988, NSW)
• Data ownership – the legalities of using data from Tinder
• Data Storage – anonymised data management procedures
1. Research ‘in’
Tinder
Set up
‘researcher’
Tinder account
(via Facebook
accounts)
Swipe within a
10k radius of
Sydney city
centre
‘Automatic’
content
analysis of
user profiles
Plan B!

11. Going against terms of service…
“You will not: use any robot, spider, site
search/retrieval application, or other manual or
automatic device or process to retrieve, index,
“data mine”, or in any way reproduce or
circumvent the navigational structure or
presentation of the Service or its contents.”
Tinder Terms of Service (date accessed: Feb 12th 2016)
….either way
• Non-commercial purposes
• Data management procedures
• Precedent for the collection of research data via
geolocation applications

12. Dating becoming more ‘social’
Flickr: Global Panorama CC BY-SA 2.0
Geolocation is enabling
more ‘networked’ dating
practices.
For example:
– Tinder shows friends
in common from
Facebook.
– Tinder recently added
‘matchmaker’ function
that allows users to
share profiles with
non-Tinder users.
– Users including
Instagram and
Snapchat usernames. Flickr: Nicolas Nova CC BY-SA 2.0

13. Making our research more ‘social’ too…
• The web enables our research
to be much more participatory
and open (co-production)
• People want to talk about
Tinder
Qualitative: online
questionnaires
(digital storytelling
approach)
TinDAProject.com
As an online place
for stories and
dialogue around
how geolocation
apps mediate travel
experiences

14. A braver approach…
• Being brave for research ‘in’ the digital
– Navigating ToS by understanding the legalities
– More ‘social’ research methods
– Inviting participation
– Opening up data
• Ethics as ongoing practices because:
– Geo-location apps are dynamic research contexts
– We navigate those spaces as ourselves
Flickr: yhancik

15. @jennacondie
#SoMeEthics
Website: http://www.tindaproject.com
@TinDAProject
soon 
The Ethics of Researching Tinder
Jenna Condie, Garth Lean, Brittany Wilcockson