If you're a secret Tinder user – a word of warning. Reading this may cause your palms to become clammy and your chest to tighten in panic. A new website will allow anyone to find out whether someone they know is using the dating app – and it'll even tell you when and where they were last online.
Swipe Buster promises to let you find out whether people you know have a Tinder account, although you'll have to pay a $4.99 fee. Still, what's five bucks for the certain knowledge that your partner has been chirpsing other people online? Swipe Buster works by searching Tinder's database (which you sign up to as part of your terms of use) and will enable you to narrow down Tinder users you might know by first name, age and location. Although you'll need to have those details, when you input them on the site you'll be able to see people matching that description who are registered on Tinder's database.
If Swipe Buster actually works, it could cause more than a few inevitable messy break-ups. Addressing this, the Swipe Buster founder (who preferred to stay anonymous) told Vanity Fair that he had altruistic motives. "There is too much data about people that people themselves don’t know is available. Not only are people oversharing and putting out a lot of information about themselves, but companies are also not doing enough to let people know they’re doing it.”
Alongside wanting to make people realise that Tinder isn't as private as you think it is, Swipe Buster's founder wants to help eliminate the uncertainty that can plague many (admittedly already unhappy) relationships. Explaining that when he was at school, he often heard about his classmates' infidelities, the elusive Swipe Buster CEO said, "It struck me that there were so many people not knowing what was going on with the person they care most about. It stuck with me."
Although the recent Ashley Madison leak made shockwaves around the world, it's unlikely that Swipe Buster will have the same devastating consequences – after all, most of the people on Tinder are single (or claim to be). But there's no denying that for casual Tinder users with not-so-casual other halves, the implications of Swipe Buster – if it does what it promises to do – are huge. According to one survey, 30% of Tinder users are married. Which could mean bad news for a lot of couples out there – but good news for divorce lawyers.
