Facebook Wants To Know Who You’re Romantically Interested In

Facebook’s never-ending quest to learn more about its users continued apace this week, with the company announcing a new feature at its annual F8 developers conference called Secret Crush. The tool, which will be available to Facebook Dating users, will allow them to select up to nine friends they’re potentially interested in. If those friends pick them back, they’ll be matched.

So far, Facebook has rolled out its dating tool in countries all around the world including Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Thailand and more. (Alongside its Secret Crush announcement, he company also revealed it will be rolling out FB Dating to users in 14 new countries.) However, Facebook has yet to introduce it to American users, and it’s safe to speculate that this may be due in part to privacy concerns. Facebook itself seemed to anticipate this criticism.

“All activity that occurs in FB Dating stays in FB Dating and will not be shared externally,” a Facebook spokesperson told WIRED in an email.

As Madison Malone Kircher points out in a column for New York Magazine, it seems unlikely that Facebook would build a feature like this without proper encryptions and protections. However, it’s a high bar to clear to trust Facebook with such personal information. The company hasn’t exactly proven in the past to be a responsible steward of our data.




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