Bumble, the dating app, will no longer require a Facebook login for users to sign in. Users can now use their phone number to register for a new account. This decision was taken by Bumble in response to the data sharing scandal which has taken Facebook by storm.
Just like Tinder, Hinge, and lots of other apps, the registration process on Bumble was via connecting the account with Facebook.
“Many of our users and prospective users have asked for a way to register for Bumble without linking their Facebook account, and we are excited to roll out this feature to our users starting today,” Jessica Collins, product marketing manager at Bumble, said in a statement. “We’re excited to continue to scale globally to new communities while preserving the Bumble experience that our users know and love. Safety will continue to be our first priority and our moderation team will continue to preserve the Bumble experience.”
Quite recently Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress to answer questions related to the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. Cambridge Analytica, which was hired by Trump’s campaign in 2016, improperly obtained Facebook user data to target potential voters. The firm gained access to data on as many as 87 million Facebook users.
Following the scandal, Facebook initiated new privacy tools and shut down a product that would let third-party data providers to target users on Facebook. Earlier this month, dozens of Tinder users who accessed the app via Facebook were booted off the app due to a bug fix prompt which was released by Facebook.
However, many are still concerned about Facebook’s reach other than its own platform. “Many of our users and prospective users asked for an alternative registration method,” Louise Troen, Bumble’s VP of international marketing and communications, told Wired.
Tinder, Match, and OkCupid have a phone number login option, however many users still depend on Facebook to login to these apps. Likewise, if a user doesn’t mind signing in on Bumble using Facebook, they still have the option to do so.
