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THREAD: Dodgy data practices give big companies too much power. A @Tinder case study.
Without letting customers know, Tinder is charging very different prices to different groups of people based on their personal data. https://www.choice.com.au/electronics-and-technology/internet/using-online-services/articles/tinder-plus-costs-more-if-youre-older
Without letting customers know, Tinder is charging very different prices to different groups of people based on their personal data. https://www.choice.com.au/electronics-and-technology/internet/using-online-services/articles/tinder-plus-costs-more-if-youre-older
Tinder charges some people 5x more than others for the same service. A @choiceaustralia investigation from @saimi_j found prices between $6.99 to $34.37 for a 1 month sub to Tinder Plus.
Prices varied by age. On average, people over the age of 30 were offered prices that were more than double the prices given to those who were under 30. BUT Tinder is also using other factors to set prices.
There are wild price variations within age groups, ranging from $6.99 to $16.71 in the under-30 group and $14.99 to $34.37 for people over 30. Tinder is potentially using data on sexuality, gender, location, interests or other personal factors to set prices.
The big problem? Tinder doesn’t tell users any of this. It doesn’t clearly say that you may pay a different price to someone else or that your data will be used to set prices.
That’s why @choiceaustralia has made a complaint to the @ACCCgovau - we think Tinder is misleading customers by omitting one big fact: this company will use your data against you.
We know Tinder isn’t the only company using personal data to set prices. It’s just the one we caught in the act.
Companies have to think about the ethics and responsibilities they have to customers when they use personal data, not just how they access and store this information
Companies have to think about the ethics and responsibilities they have to customers when they use personal data, not just how they access and store this information
The Tinder privacy policy has some lovely statements about how the company will be “transparent in the way we process your data”. It’s time for Tinder to live up to this statement and actually tell customers how data is used.
We can’t even have a conversation about whether Tinder is acting ethically or treating customers fairly by showing different prices until we know exactly what they’re doing. Transparency is a precondition for accountability.
(Side note, everyone should read @ellenbroad ‘s amazing book on algorithms and the need for transparency.) https://www.mup.com.au/books/made-by-humans-electronic-book-text
Without basic transparency we can’t have good competitive markets - we need to know how companies use our data to set prices to properly compare our options and pick a company that best offers what we want.
After companies are transparent, we can hold them accountable for what they’re actually doing with data. And there should be limits. Companies shouldn’t be able to unfairly discriminate against groups of people.
And by “unfairly discriminate” - I mean “that totally depends on the situation and the service”. It will need to be an ethical judgement on a range of factors like who benefits, who is harmed and whether a service is essential.
We can’t even have that conversation about the ethics until companies like Tinder meet one basic requirement: tell us exactly what you’re doing with our data.
TL;DR: companies are using data about you, against you. @choiceaustralia caught Tinder charging people different prices based on personal data. Companies should tell you how they use your data, especially if they want to charge you more because of who you are.
