Facebook Dating launches because nothing matters

It's difficult to imagine a company less qualified to keep your "secret crush" list secret.

Facebook Dating just launched in the U.S. as an opt-in feature that is integrated with Facebook-owned Instagram. It's only for 18-and-over users and requires a separate profile.

Matches between users who opt in to Facebook Dating will be suggested by the algorithm based on users' preferences, interests, and activity within Facebook and Instagram.

"Barely more than a month has passed since the U.S. Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook a record $5 billion over its privacy lapses, and imposed a modified corporate structure to hold the company more accountable for its decisions over user privacy," writes Sarah Perez at TechCrunch.

In the wake of this historic action, Facebook's brand-new dating product is today launching to all in the U.S., promising to leverage the company's deep insight into people's personal data to deliver better matches than rival dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, Match and others.

With its U.S. arrival, Facebook Dating will now also allow users to integrate their Instagram posts in their dating profile and add their Instagram followers to their "Secret Crush" list, in addition to Facebook friends.

By year-end, Facebook Dating users will be able to select which Facebook or Instagram Stories they want to add to their dating profile.

As others have noted on Facebook, apart from all the bonkers implications of getting more intimate with Facebook, what's newsworthy about this announcement is the new ability for users to combine their Facebook and Instagram files in Facebook Dating. That's the first time Facebook has munged the two platforms so closely together in pursuit of a product goal.

Remember, before you use this thing? It's owned by Facebook. If you use it, so's your most intimate imaginable personal data.

lol i can't think of anything i would trust facebook to not accidentally reveal less https://t.co/fiN8c3WKDc

- Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) September 5, 2019

"Our popular Secret Crush feature gives you the option to do just that. If you choose to use Secret Crush, you can select up to nine of your Facebook friends or Instagram followers who you're interested in."

oh boyhttps://t.co/7TiG17lY9U

- David Zhou (@dz) September 5, 2019

FB is launching its dating service in the US today.

More interesting IMO: It's letting people basically combine their FB and IG profiles to create a dating profile. That's the most notable blending of the two products that I can recallhttps://t.co/SXiptxQqiD

- Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8) September 5, 2019

Facebook Dating is built on top of and reliant on Facebook's shoddy foundation, not - as Facebook would have you believe - apart from it https://t.co/MCkqIgD5b3

- Intelligencer (@intelligencer) September 5, 2019

Facebook Dating. Also known as "We need a deeper data dive on young persuadables for Brad Perscale." https://t.co/VLa4fJGTfK

- Schooley (@Rschooley) September 5, 2019

One fascinating thing about the new FB dating feature: it's the first time users have been able to combine their Instagram profile with their Facebook profile. Analysis here by @KurtWagner8 https://t.co/RYsYitY1la

- Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) September 5, 2019

Oh I know you, you're that website that keeps suggesting my ex-wife to me in 'People You Might Know'. I bet this dating product is truly in touch with humanity. https://t.co/ZYwmGbh9NH

- Sebastiaan de With is at XOXO (@sdw) September 5, 2019

facebook dating is a responsibly developed service that's totally separate from facebook and instagram and it also feeds off of everything you put on facebook and instagram https://t.co/Scx8VZ3bro

- brian feldman (@bafeldman) September 5, 2019

finally another way for men to reject me https://t.co/fccQzl2qPJ

- Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) September 5, 2019

We are now nearly 30 minutes into Facebook hosting a live dating show in front of a room of beat reporters on a Thursday morning https://t.co/DTnLVDe0kU

- Alex Heath (@alexeheath) September 5, 2019

"Facebook Dating" already exists and it's called "being unhappily married for 15 yrs & one day, half in the bag, looking up the guy you went to prom with, striking up a conversation, and 6 months later giving him a blow job in an Applebee's parking lot" https://t.co/Af2zXxtWw8

- Erin Sharpie Meteorologist Ryan (@morninggloria) September 5, 2019

so i still think fb dating's "secret crush" feature is a total growth hack that makes me feel icky, BUT the company is going to let people pick their crushes from not only their fb friends but ALSO their insta followers. this is actually... game changing?

- Ashley Carman (@ashleyrcarman) September 5, 2019

Who better to give you all the personal data and information you need to build a solid relationship than @Facebook? https://t.co/pIPn5O7dNI

- Nikki Sunstrum (@nikkisunstrum) September 5, 2019

Spoiled 147 days before launchhttps://t.co/54dpkVjmHJ pic.twitter.com/K76XFXioMy

- Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 5, 2019

facebook's new matchmaking service sounds like a dynamite way to increase user engagement by creating as much drama as possible. https://t.co/o2IHYJBRJS pic.twitter.com/gMvZ2ty8nK

- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Hello_Tailor) September 5, 2019

For those wondering why FB didn't use Instagram (more visual, youthful) as the main entry point for the dating experience vs. the FB app, it's a good question.

FB really wants the blue app to be about friends/people connections and wants IG to lean more into brands/celebs.

- Alex Heath (@alexeheath) September 5, 2019

facebook has given us exactly zero reasons to trust it with any information over the last few years. https://t.co/31KLOwqVCp

- Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) September 6, 2019

Facebook is currently hosting a dating show in front of a room of reporters after announcing its dating feature coming to the US. Match Group shares down about 4% pic.twitter.com/ejlVYFV6W2

- Alex Heath (@alexeheath) September 5, 2019

Plenty of legacy dating apps aren't much better with privacy and security. But protecting your romantic secrets is a job that Facebook seems, given its history of data breaches, uniquely unqualified for. https://t.co/HU8hAzfZO8

- Privacy Project (@PrivacyProject) September 5, 2019

[via Techmeme]