Protecting your privacy while dating online

What your photos give away without you noticing

• Backgrounds: house numbers, street signs, the view from your window, your car's plate, a local landmark that narrows your neighbourhood to two blocks.
• Uniforms, lanyards and branded mugs that identify your employer.
• Gym, café or dog-park photos taken at the same place repeatedly, which reveal a routine.
• Photos also posted on your public social accounts — a reverse image search links your dating profile to your full name in seconds.
• Children's faces, and other people who did not agree to appear on a dating app.

Use photos you have never posted publicly elsewhere. It is the single most effective way to prevent someone connecting your dating profile to the rest of your life before you are ready.

The details that identify you faster than your name

People are careful with their surname and careless with everything that makes a surname unnecessary. A specific job title at a named company, an unusual hobby plus a neighbourhood, or the name of a small gym will identify most people within minutes.

• Say the industry before you say the employer.
• Say the part of town before you say the street.
• Keep your specific schedule vague until you have met — 'weekday mornings' rather than 'the 7am class at the studio on Whyte'.
• Avoid using the same unusual username across your dating profile and your other accounts.

Mekora's privacy controls

• Mekora shows approximate distance rather than your exact location, so no one can pinpoint where you are.
• Your email address and phone number are never shown on your profile.
• Who-can-see-me settings and incognito browsing let you control your visibility while you look around.
• You can pause or hide your profile at any time without deleting your account.
• Blocking is immediate, silent and mutual — the other person is not told.
• You can request deletion of your account and associated data from account settings at any time.

Full details of what we collect, why, and how long we keep it are in our Privacy Policy.

Keep a separation between channels

Once you decide to move a conversation off Mekora, do it in a way that does not hand over your whole digital identity at once.

• Prefer a voice or video call inside Mekora over swapping numbers early.
• If you do swap contact details, consider a secondary number or a messaging app that does not expose your full contact list and profile photo history.
• Delay social media exchanges until after you have met. Instagram in particular reveals your friends, your routine and your locations at a glance.
• Never reuse a password between a dating account and your email — email is the master key to everything else.
• Turn on two-factor authentication on the email address your dating account uses.

If your privacy is breached

1. 1Screenshot the evidence, including profile URLs and timestamps.
2. 2Block the account and report it to Mekora through the profile or message menu.
3. 3If your images are being shared without consent, report to the hosting platform — most have a dedicated non-consensual imagery process that is faster than a general report.
4. 4If you are being threatened or extorted, contact police. Do not pay.
5. 5Change the passwords on your email and dating accounts, and check your account's active sessions.