One of Badoo’s top priorities is the safety of our community, and that includes the protection of our members’ information. We know that it’s important to feel safe, supported, and secure in order to make genuine connections with others.

Here’s an overview of how Badoo keeps your data private, how our security policies and features work, and actions you can take to protect your information.

What Badoo does:

At Badoo, we take your privacy seriously. We have teams dedicated to member privacy and information security, as well as policies we follow, functions we perform, and features we’ve introduced for this purpose.

Safety-by-design: At Badoo, we design our products with safety and security in mind. We review all our products and features regularly in an effort to solve safety risks, as well as putting our technology through routine vulnerability checks. Our entire product development process is designed with Kind Connections™ in mind.

Data protection: Whenever your data is in transit (for instance, when you input or update your profile), we encrypt it until it reaches the security of our servers. If a member asks for their own data, Badoo requires the member to go through a verification process to ensure it’s shared with the correct person.

Controlled data usage and deletion: At Badoo, we know we have the very important duty of taking care of your data. We only use it for the purposes that members have been provided with within our comprehensive Privacy Policy. Members can delete their account at any time, and their data (with the exception of data that Badoo, for example, legally has to retain) will be deleted.

Scam profile detection: We have a robust system in place that aims to detect and delete fake, scam, and spam profiles, which helps prevent potential instances of catfishing, romance scams, and misuse of your personal information. Our technology and safety teams check profile photos for images without people or with text overlays, which are often signs of a scam. We also monitor profile content for URLs, links to payment apps, and certain keywords and phrases that are associated with fake profiles. Badoo also reviews suspicious behaviour, including efforts to hide location, multiple phones logging into one profile, and multiple name changes.

Block & Report feature: We encourage Badoo members to use Block & Report whenever they feel uncomfortable or unsafe, or encounter a member or profile that violates community guidelines. Members can report people who ask for their personal information, like a phone number, email, or physical address.

Badoo adheres to the highest standards of General Data Protection Regulation (known as GDPR) guidelines, which you can read more about here.

What you can do:

While Badoo works hard to protect our members, there are simple steps our community can take to help keep their personal data private.

Review your profile: Take another look at your photos to make sure they don’t accidentally reveal any personal information, such as your home or business address, or anything that could reveal your current location or the places you frequent. On Badoo, we only ever share your first name with our community, and it’s a good idea to keep your last name private—especially on your profile—as well.

Be careful sharing personal information: It’s also important to keep sensitive personal information private when first getting to know a match. Don’t share your email, home address, phone number, account password, or anything that you wouldn’t want a stranger to know with someone you just connected with or before you’re ready. If a match tries to pressure you into sharing any information that you’re not comfortable with disclosing, don’t hesitate to Unmatch them or Block & Report them.

Don’t reuse passwords: With so many passwords to remember, using the same one for different accounts is understandable, but this can have serious consequences for your data, no matter how strong or complex the password may be. It’s a good idea to use a unique and strong password for every account, including Badoo, so that if one account becomes compromised your other accounts remain secure. Here are some tips for creating strong passwords:

• Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols
• Avoid using personal information, like your name, birthday, or address
• Don’t use common passwords, such as "123456" or "password", which can be easily guessed
• Make your password at least 8 characters long
• Use a password manager to generate and store strong passwords securely

Remember, Badoo support staff will never ask for your password!

Don’t disclose financial details: This may sound obvious, but it’s worth repeating: don’t share financial information with a new Badoo match, including credit card, PayPal, CashApp, Venmo details, your PIN, or any banking information. Badoo will never ask you for your financial information over email. When paying for features within the app, Badoo will never ask you for your 16-digit card number. In any instance when a member does send us their 16-digit number or a photograph of their credit card, our interface will delete the information automatically and it will not be visible to our team.

Don’t move too fast: Even if you match with someone who you’re really excited about, only move at a pace that you’re comfortable with; don’t move off the app and share your phone number unless it feels right to you. Badoo has a Video Chat and Voice Call feature that you can use with a match so you don’t have to disclose any personal information.

Use Invisible Mode: Invisible Mode is a feature offered with Badoo Premium. It works by only showing your profile to people you've swiped right on. Premium members can also turn on ‘Hide’ when in online mode, ‘Browse Profiles Privately’ mode, or both. So if you don't want someone to see your profile, they won't.

Trust your gut: If something doesn’t feel right with a match or a profile, you can always Unmatch them or Block & Report them. Don’t feel pressure to keep a conversation going, especially if you feel as though someone is trying to get personal information from you.

For more specific guides, tools and helplines to help you date safely, you can check out our Safety Centre. We’re here for you, and always working to make your experience as safe as possible!