Every hour 4,000 profiles are created in the apps to link

Every hour 4,000 profiles are created in the apps to link

It is estimated that there are more than 8,000 online dating services, a market that moves about two billion per year

   It is already Valentine's Day and it is not the motto of any commercial brand, on February 14 it has arrived and also to the Network of networks and it shows. The use of apps to link increases by 20% during the days before Valentine's Day and the concern for the safety of these also shoots up.

In the memory and historical facts is the massive hack to Ashley Madison , a website specializing in dating between people with a partner, with the filtration of 733 million emails and 22 million passwords.

However, online dating or flirting applications are increasingly desired. The fault lies with Tinder , who in 2012 revolutionized the way of linking. Since that year, at least 35.3% of the 80.2 million Internet users via smartphone have downloaded some of the dating apps available in the market, according to a report by The Competitive Intelligence Unit, better known as The CIU.

   A success that lies in the almost daily use of this type of applications. Among active users, almost three out of ten say they access at least once a day, 15.8% do so at least once every third day and 32% access at least once a week.

The question is, do they work? The figures indicate that almost half of the regular users end up knowing their partner on the Internet and that more than 70% of the appointments are repeated again.

Several reports indicate that the average number of days it takes to stay is low: three. During which about 30 messages are exchanged .

Security in question
The dating app catalog is extensive, both for iOS and Android devices, and the history of problems with your security as well. A year ago, Spanish researchers warned of the poor protection of Tinder users.

The Telefónica cybersecurity unit developed a tool capable of following the steps of a Tinder user and showing them in detail on a map. With just cone being a detail about the other person, whether it was age, name or where your tool lives could monitor your location constantly.

Tinder uses the GPS of the mobile to find out your location. When connected to the application, the smartphone sends the geolocation to the company's server to offer the closest profiles.

The Telefónica researchers developed a small bot that imitated a user and asked the application continuously where the users are and change their own location with ease.

It has not been the only problem of the dating app. Until a few months ago, one of his security flaws allowed to enter the account of anyone with his phone number, and it was not until this summer when he encrypted the photographs of all his users.

The gay version of Tinder, Grindr, has also been involved . Last April, a non-profit organization discovered the transfer of personal data of the app without consent by its users.

The Norwegian NGO SINTEF revealed that the app gave away the identification of the telephone, the mail, the GPS positioning and also the HIV data. "As a member of the LGBTQ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer), we understand that revealing a state of HIV can be a sensitive issue," explained Scott Chen, one of Grindr's founders, in a statement.

It is estimated that there are more than 8,000 online dating services  and every day hundreds of new apps appear in a market that moves about two billion annually. Every minute 67 people register in the different sites and apps that exist. Three are false profiles and one of them will be a scammer.