Does Hinge train on your data?
Hinge's help centre says verification selfies and age estimates may train its trust-and-safety models. Where Face Check or an age check is compulsory, the only way out is deleting your account.
No opt-out found in this policy
"We may use your age estimate and audit images to train select machine learning models that power our trust and safety tools, as well as to test and audit such models and tools."
- 23 Sept 2026
- 5 Oct 2026
- Verification selfies and age estimates
- global
- Fetched, browser-rendered
- 6A8E78CC…707A
How we read it: Resolved from UNCLEAR on 23 September 2026 by Hinge's help centre, which the privacy policy never points to for this. Three articles say the same thing: the age estimate and audit images kept from a video selfie may be used to "train select machine learning models that power our trust and safety tools". Selfie Verification is "a voluntary process", so this is training you choose by verifying, and the grade reflects that. Two caveats. Where Face Check or an age check is compulsory the choice goes, and that is the next tier. And none of this reaches your profile, photos or messages, which are the tier after.
"The results of your age check may be used to help train certain machine learning models that support our trust and safety tools, as well as to test and audit those models and tools."
- 1 Oct 2026
- 5 Oct 2026
- Face Check and age checks where they are required
- global
- Fetched, browser-rendered
- 7292240A…8D2C
How we read it: Where Hinge requires a Face Check or an age check, the same data feeds the same models, and there's no choosing: "If you are presented with an age check, you must complete it to fully access Hinge." The Age Checks article names where: a Face Check for new users in the UK, a video selfie in the EEA and Switzerland, a face photo in Australia and Brazil. Where the scan is required, you "cannot delete your Verification Data without deleting your account". Training with no way out but leaving, which is what an F is. A Hinge team member may review a check that can't confirm your age. Corrected 2 October 2026: this note said the articles don't name the regions. They did.
This clause is real, but it doesn't resolve the training question - see the finding below.
"Developing and improving new features and services, including through machine learning and other technologies, and testing them out"
- 7 Sept 2026
- 5 Oct 2026
- Profiles, photos and messages
- global
- Fetched from the company
- AD4FAAAD…E05F
Why this is still UNCLEAR: A dating app holds what people disclose while trying to be chosen. The policy names machine learning twice as a means, once for developing features under legitimate interest, once for what de-identified data may be used to create, and once more as something service providers do on Hinge's behalf. None of the three says data is training data. The wording is identical to Tinder's, which is the same corporate group, so read them together. The pattern is a company naming the technology and not the input. The policy points to a FAQ on profiling and automated decisions. Read on 23 September 2026, it says the information you and other members provide powers Hinge's matching algorithm, "upon which we constantly improve". Hinge's own page on how it connects daters says its recommendation system "learns from you and others on the app". A system that learns from profiles and likes, described without the word train. The help centre answers plainly for verification selfies, in the tier above, and not for this.
What each plan can refuse
The same questions, asked of every plan we could identify. Every cell comes from a quoted clause or a documented search - see the evidence above.
- Nothing to switch off
- Not stated
- 17 / 100
- Not stated
- Unknown
- None offered
- Not stated
- 89 / 100
- Not stated
- Yes
- Not established
- Not stated
- —
- —
- Not established
How to opt out of Hinge AI training
Plan by plan, from what Hinge's own policy says about refusing. Where it publishes the steps, they're listed here with the limits they carry. Where there's nothing to switch off, or nothing graded, this says so instead of inventing a menu path.
Verification selfies and age estimates
Nothing to switch off: training here is off until an opt-in is given.
Face Check and age checks where they are required
No opt-out is stated in the policy on file for Hinge.
Profiles, photos and messages
Not graded, so no route is pointed at. A dating app holds what people disclose while trying to be chosen. The policy names machine learning twice as a means, once for developing features under legitimate interest, once for what de-identified data may be used to create, and once more as something service providers do on Hinge's behalf. None of the three says data is training data. The wording is identical to Tinder's, which is the same corporate group, so read them together. The pattern is a company naming the technology and not the input. The policy points to a FAQ on profiling and automated decisions. Read on 23 September 2026, it says the information you and other members provide powers Hinge's matching algorithm, "upon which we constantly improve". Hinge's own page on how it connects daters says its recommendation system "learns from you and others on the app". A system that learns from profiles and likes, described without the word train. The help centre answers plainly for verification selfies, in the tier above, and not for this.
What this policy has done since we started watching
1 change detected since 30 Aug 2026. Each one is a diff between two archived copies, and each links to the passage that moved.
Everything we read
Vendor response
We wrote to Hinge on 24 Sept 2026, quoting the clauses above and inviting a correction. Nothing has come back. That's published because a company declining to comment on its own policy is something a reader should know, and because the invitation should be on the record whether or not it's taken up. Any reply goes here, word for word.
Report a wrong clause