Norway forced Tinder to change how it uses customer data

As Fortune writes, the problem was that, according to Norway’s Consumer Council, under the old terms Tinder had “sweeping” ownership and control over user data. More than that, Tinder could change its terms and even delete user accounts without any sort of notification.

DN writes that because of the Council’s inquiry, Tinder has changed how it’ll do business. The Council’s ombudsman claimed that the previous, allegedly ambiguous terms violated Norway’s Marketing Control Act. In part, the changes proposed were:

• Norwegian consumers get Norwegian conditions
• Terms must be easier to understand and shorter
• A summary of the short-form terms will be present before the terms are agreed upon
• Norwegian and European protection rules apply
• Notification of changes to the agreed upon terms
• User-generated items will be deleted when an account is terminated

Surprisingly, Tinder accepted.

“As a global platform, we work to adhere to the laws and regulations within each of our markets while striving to provide the best experience possible,” Tinder’s head of marketing and communications told Engadget. “We worked closely with the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman to find a solution through a collaborative partnership. The positive outcome demonstrates our commitment to our users and resulted in improvements to Tinder’s terms worldwide.”

Apparently this will go beyond Tinder, as Norway is going to push Facebook, Google+ and Twitter to follow suit. Whether or not those three will follow the dating app’s lead and implement the changes on a global scale is anyone’s guess. Considering that personal browsing data is now up for sale in the United States, maybe don’t expect these sorts of things to take hold at home.