Are Bumble Photos Private?

No. Photos and videos you add to your Bumble profile are shown to other members as part of that profile. Bumble's privacy policy tells members to assume that anything they post may be viewable by others. It also says to be careful with photos that reveal sensitive information. There is one setting that narrows who sees you, Incognito Mode, but it limits which people see your whole profile, not just one photo.

Every photo on your Bumble profile is part of what a stranger sees when your profile comes up for them. Bumble lets you upload several photos and videos, and all of them are there for any member the app shows you to.

That is the point of a dating profile. A woman cannot decide whether she is interested in a man she cannot see.

The useful way to think about it is to treat each photo as public inside the app. Pick photos you are comfortable with an unknown woman, and her friends, looking at for as long as they like.

Incognito Mode is part of Bumble Premium and Premium+. It hides your location and shows your profile only to people you have liked. Anyone you have not liked will not see you.

That is real privacy, with a cost. A profile that only appears to the women you pick has far fewer chances to be seen by women who would pick you. So it suits a man who needs to keep a low profile for a reason, such as a job where being recognised matters. It does not suit a man trying to get as many dates as possible.

Bumble does not show when members are online or when they last used the app, whether or not Incognito Mode is on.

It also requires members to verify their account. Photo Verification and ID verification let members confirm a person is who they say they are. For you as a man, verification lets a woman confirm you are the person in your photos, which helps a profile more than it hurts it.

A feature called Private Detector blurs potentially explicit images automatically. A member can then choose whether to view them. And Bumble does not allow guns or other weapons in profile photos.

You can block or report anyone who makes you uncomfortable. Unmatching removes the chat and prevents the person from contacting you again.

That is the correct response to a stranger who keeps contacting you after you have lost interest, or who sends something you did not ask for. Use the tool and move on.

If you accept that your photos are visible to anyone, the sensible question is what they say to a stranger. a dating coach's advice on a profile starts with the photos, and he has pointed out the usual faults in them. One of his examples is a photo that is off-center, badly lit, and cropped so the man's head is not fully in the frame. A woman sees the same thing and keeps moving.

Good lighting, your face clear and a few different settings are what carry a profile. Keep a few more rules in mind because the photos are visible to everyone:

• Leave out anything that shows where you live or work, such as a street sign, a house number, a badge on your shirt or a car plate.
• Do not use a photo that includes another person's face if you have not asked them.
• Skip photos with weapons. Bumble does not allow them.

The same rule covers the words on your page. A bio, a prompt answer or a line about your job is part of the profile, so any member the app shows you to can read it, and it can be copied the same way a photo can.

Write them for a stranger. Say what you do and what you like in plain terms, and leave out the details that would let someone find you at work or at home. A prompt answer that gives her something to ask you about does more for you than a clever one that tells her nothing.

One more practical point. Once a photo has been seen, you cannot control what happens to it. A person can screenshot it, and the app cannot stop her.

So the safest rule is to never upload something you would hate to see go further. If you would not want a coworker or her friends to find it, leave it out.

If your photos are public by design, the useful work is making them good. If your set is one wedding photo, two shots in a dark bar and a bathroom mirror, no privacy setting is going to help it. Take a short afternoon to get a few clear photos in daylight with a friend, and you will see the difference in how a profile gets treated.