In July 2025, a newly popular dating app called Tea suffered a major security breach that exposed users’ personal data, including face photos and ID scans, on a publicly accessible server (as reported by CNET). The root cause was an unsecured database: sensitive images were stored in a publicly accessible cloud bucket with no encryption or authentication, allowing hackers to easily grab private.
They’re not alone. The April 2025 leak of over 1.5 million private images across five niche dating apps; a massive May 2025 AWS S3 misconfiguration spilling 845 GB of data; a January 2025 location‐data hack at Gravy Analytics affecting thousands of Tinder and Grindr users; a April 2025 unsecured API leak at the college app Cerca; and even Tinder’s own HTTPS encryption flaw in 2024—it’s clear that no platform is immune to lapses in security.
Incidents like this underscore why robust security is absolutely critical for any app handling personal information, especially a dating app. At Swept Dating, we have designed our systems with a privacy-first mindset from day one. In this article, I wanted to outline some of the measures we’ve put in place to safeguard your data and maintain your trust.
End-to-End Data Encryption
One of the foundational steps we take is encryption everywhere. All user data in Swept is encrypted both at rest and in transit. What does that mean? Encryption at rest ensures that any data we store (from database records to images) is protected using strong encryption algorithms (such as AES-256). Even if an attacker were somehow able to access the raw storage, the data would be unreadable without the proper decryption. Likewise, encryption in transit means that every piece of data moving through our system travels over secure, encrypted channels. We enforce HTTPS (TLS/SSL) for all network traffic – whether it’s communication between your app and our servers or even internal service-to-service calls within our cloud infrastructure. This end-to-end use of encryption (using modern protocols like TLS 1.3) prevents eavesdropping or man-in-the-middle attacks, so that your personal information and messages remain confidential as they flow through the network. In short, we’ve essentially built Swept inside a “secure tunnel,” where your data is always locked down – at rest on our servers, and in motion across the internet – to keep it safe from prying eyes.
Continuous Monitoring and Proactive Defense
Security isn’t something we “set and forget” – it requires constant vigilance. Swept employs continuous monitoring to catch any irregularities or suspicious activity in our systems. We have partnered with top-tier cloud providers (AWS and Azure) and leverage their advanced security monitoring tools to bolster our defenses. These systems use machine learning and global threat intelligence to detect unusual patterns, unauthorized access attempts, or other threats in real time. If something doesn’t look right – say, an odd login attempt or a spike in database activity – our team is alerted immediately so we can investigate and respond quickly.
In addition to automated cloud monitoring, we conduct regular security audits and penetration testing on our applications. This helps us find and fix any potential vulnerabilities before bad actors might discover them. We also maintain detailed logging of access to sensitive data and administrative actions, and we review those logs for anything out of the ordinary. By tracking system activity closely, we aim to catch issues early; before they become problems.
User Privacy Controls and GDPR Compliance
From the very beginning, Swept was built with privacy by design, and we make it simple for users to control their own data. We adhere to strict privacy regulations like the EU’s GDPR, and have implemented user-friendly mechanisms for compliance. For example, if you decide to leave Swept, you can delete your account right from within our app with no questions asked. This triggers the removal of your personal data from our systems in near real time. We respect the “right to be forgotten,” and give you an easy way to exercise it. Similarly, we provide a straightforward data request form on our website for anyone who wants to know what information of theirs we have on file. Under GDPR, users have the right to obtain a copy of their personal data that a service is processing, as well as the right to request that their data be deleted. Swept fully honors these rights – when you request your data, we will compile and send you a report of all your personal information in our databases, and if you request deletion, we will erase your data (except any information we’re legally required to retain).
Transparency is another key part of our privacy-first approach. We’ve made our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy transparent and digestible. We want you to actually understand our data practices: what data we collect, how we use it, and how we protect it. Our privacy policy is straightforward about things like what information is public on your profile and what remains private, how long we retain data, and how you can contact us for any privacy concerns. By being upfront and honest, we aim to build trust with you so you shouldn’t need a law degree to figure out how a dating app handles your data.
Trusted Identity Verification and Secure Authentication
Account security is paramount at Swept. When it comes to verifying users’ identities (for features like profile verification or age checks), we rely on trusted third-party providers who specialize in secure ID handling. In fact, we’ve partnered with Stripe for our KYC identity verification services. Stripe is a globally reputable payments and identity platform known for its rigorous security standards. By using Stripe’s verified identity system, we ensure that any sensitive ID documents (like driver’s licenses or selfies for verification) are transmitted and stored with bank-level security. This means Swept itself never retains your government ID scans in plain form – that data is handled by Stripe and protected within their audited, secure infrastructure. We chose Stripe because they are a certified, industry-leading provider. In practical terms, when you verify your identity on our app, the process is encrypted and managed by Stripe, and the information is not visible to any unauthorized party. This approach adds an extra layer of protection to one of the most sensitive parts of the user experience.
Beyond identity verification, Swept uses modern, token-based authentication for managing user logins and sessions. We have adopted the OpenID Connect standard for our authentication system. OpenID Connect is an industry best-practice protocol built on OAuth 2.0, which allows users to securely log in without us ever storing raw passwords in a risky way. Using OpenID and OAuth means when you log in or create an account, a secure token (essentially a digital key) is issued to your device. This token grants access without exposing your actual credentials. The beauty of this approach is that it eliminates the need for us to store or handle plaintext passwords, a practice that significantly reduces risk because stolen password databases are a common source of breaches. Instead, authentication is delegated to trusted identity providers and cryptographically signed tokens. This framework is reliable, well-tested, and secure as it places the heavy lifting of identity verification on proven, expert services (like Google, Apple, and AWS) and utilizes strong encryption under the hood. The result is a login system that is both convenient for users and resilient against attacks. Even if someone intercepted a login token, it’s time-limited and bound to the specific user/session, unlike a password which could be reused. Overall, by using OpenID Connect and token-based auth, we add yet another safeguard to protect accounts from unauthorized access.
Our Commitment to Your Security
At Swept Dating, security and privacy are not afterthoughts as they are ingrained in everything we do. We understand that when you use a dating app, you are trusting it with some of your most personal information. That’s why we have invested early in building a strong security foundation: from encryption at every turn, to continuous monitoring and partnerships with top cloud providers, to giving you control over your own data. We take a holistic approach to user safety that covers prevention, detection, and response. And we don’t plan to stop here because security is an ongoing effort. We will continue to stay up-to-date with the latest best practices and proactively improve our defenses as new threats emerge.
Our goal is to create a platform where you can feel safe and confident connecting with others. We want you to focus on forming meaningful relationships, not worrying about the privacy of your data. The measures outlined above illustrate how seriously we take the responsibility of guarding your information. In a world where data breaches and privacy missteps are all too common, Swept is committed to doing things right from the start. We’re proud to be taking a privacy-first stance, and we’ll always work hard to earn and maintain your trust. Your security is our promise today and every day going forward.
Best,
Rob Kennedy
Founder & Lead Architect, Swept Technologies Group (Swept Dating)