How Do You File a Copyright Takedown on Tinder?

Tinder takes copyright takedown requests through its contact form. Only the copyright owner or the owner's legal representative can submit one. Under the DMCA you confirm the request is made in good faith and the information is accurate. You also state, under penalty of perjury, that you hold the copyright or are authorized to act for whoever does. Have the owner's full name, email, phone number and mailing address ready, plus a description of the content and where it sits on Tinder.

The request has to come from whoever owns the copyright, or from a legal representative acting for them. A friend who is annoyed on your behalf cannot file it for you, and you cannot file it for a friend.

A legal representative is someone with the authority to act for the owner, such as a lawyer. Being the person in the photo does not, on its own, make you either the owner or the representative.

For most men, the content in question is a photo. That raises the question of who owns it, which is covered further down, because it decides whether a takedown is even the right tool.

Tinder asks you to prepare:

• The copyright owner's full name.
• An email address.
• A phone number.
• A mailing address.
• A description of the content.
• Where the content is located on Tinder.

The last two do most of the work. Describe the content precisely: which photo, what is in it, and where you first posted it. Then say exactly where it appears on Tinder, such as the name on the account using it. Take screenshots as soon as you find it, so you can describe it accurately even if the account changes.

The DMCA part is not a formality. You confirm three things: the request is made in good faith, the information is accurate, and you are the copyright holder or authorized to act for them. The last one is made under penalty of perjury.

Penalty of perjury means what it sounds like. Do not sign it for content you are not sure you own. If ownership is unclear, the ordinary report route described below is the safer first step. A short conversation with a lawyer is worth having before you sign anything you are unsure about.

This is the usual story. You are swiping and there you are: your face, your ski trip, your dog, on an account with someone else's name on it. Or a friend sends you a screenshot and asks why you are called Marco now.

Stay calm and collect evidence first. Screenshot the account, every photo, the name and anything written on it. Then decide which route fits, because there are two, and they do different jobs.

Do not ask your friends to pile on with reports of their own, either. One clear request from you, with good evidence behind it, does more than a crowd of angry ones.

As a general rule, copyright in a photo belongs to the person who took it, not the person in it. That is general information, not legal advice. A selfie you took is yours. A picture a friend took of you on his phone is, strictly speaking, his. A shot from a paid photographer usually belongs to the photographer unless your agreement says otherwise.

That matters here. If you took the photos yourself, you can file as the owner. If a friend or a photographer took them, the request should come from them, or you need to be authorized to act for them.

A copyright takedown is about who owns the work. Sometimes the real problem is that someone is pretending to be you. That is a fake account, and the ordinary report option in the app is the natural place to flag it. You can do both: report the account in the app, and file a takedown for the photos you own.

Either way, do not message the account to argue. You gain nothing from it, and you warn them before your report lands.

Any photo you put on a dating app can be seen by anyone who comes across you, so there is no way to make it truly private. You can make it less useful to a thief, though.

Use photos on the apps that are different from the ones on your public social media. A stolen set is a nuisance. A stolen set that leads a stranger straight to your Instagram and your real name is a bigger problem. Keeping the two separate costs you nothing, and it means your photos keep doing their actual job, which is getting you dates.

If your photos turn up again on a new account, file again and describe the new location. A takedown is about specific content in a specific place, so each copy you find needs its own clear description.