Facebook Is Internally Testing A Dating Feature

When Facebook announced at its F8 developer conference in May that it was working on a dating app, many privacy experts expressed concern. After all, the company already possesses much of our personal information; does it need to know about our love lives, too? However, the social media giant appears to be getting serious about the feature, with TechCrunch reporting this week  that Facebook has begun to internally test it.

Instead of a standalone app, Facebook’s dating tool will now live as a feature on the site’s main page. Once you’ve opted in, only other users who have turned it on will be able to see you. It also won’t be shared on News Feed, and you can choose whether friends or family see you. All in all, Facebook wants to create a more “mature” dating experience for its users.

“This is going to be for building real, long-term relationships — not just for hookups,” Mark Zuckerberg said.

Thankfully, Facebook did not make its employees create dating profiles with their real information just for the sake of testing the tool. The company also specifically said it is not intended to date co-workers. However, outside the walls of Facebook corporate, users will be expected to provide their real information if they want to use the tool — and that’s a major concern. After all of Facebook’s privacy snafus, it could prove hard for users to trust it with this kind of sensitive personal info.