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Welcome to Beloved, a Medium publication where love matters. We stand for LGBTQ+ rights and strive to explore the depths of human relations. Here you’ll find a diverse, fair-minded, and kind-hearted community for restless souls seeking wisdom, inspiration, and understanding.

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Dates Aren’t Worth My Data Being Shared

5 min readSep 4, 2026

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Photo by Nik on Unsplash.

A few weeks ago, I decided to re-download Tinder after some time away. I’ve had a gut feeling for a while that my next important romantic connection will happen in March (let’s see if I’m right!), so I wasn’t optimistic about finding a lasting match. But was it too much to hope for some scintillating conversation and maybe a kiss after dinner?

Well, it was, thanks to my 1984-lens of the world. Tinder recently adopted a mandatory verification feature, requiring you to take photos of yourself at different angles to prove you’re a real person. I’ve never had issues with fake accounts on dating apps; maybe this would be less of a problem if dumb horny men would stop immediately swiping right on nearly every profile.

But I do have a problem with billionaire-funded technology receiving multiple photos of my face at different angles.

I deleted the app at once.

I had heard about the unethical backgrounds of both Tinder and Hinge, the apps I’ve found to have sufficient pools of people and seem easiest to use. I begrudgingly continued using them however, as they seemed a necessary evil. All of my many dating experiences, minus two, have arisen from apps…

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Kayla Vokolek
Kayla Vokolek

Written by Kayla Vokolek

MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Portland State

Beloved
Beloved

Published in Beloved

Welcome to Beloved, a Medium publication where love matters. We stand for LGBTQ+ rights and strive to explore the depths of human relations. Here you’ll find a diverse, fair-minded, and kind-hearted community for restless souls seeking wisdom, inspiration, and understanding.