The Platform Question: Power, Accountability and Global South The Platform Question: Power, Accountability and Global South and make your profile public, that information will also become public.” See Azeen Ghorayshi and Sri Ray, ‘Grindr Is Letting Other Companies See User HIV Status And Location Data’ (3 April 2018) <https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ article/azeenghorayshi/grindr-hiv-status-privacy#.yp0J48W0N> accessed 20 August 2025; ‘SINTEF-9012/Grindr-Privacy-Leaks’ <https://github.com/SINTEF-9012/grindr-privacy-leaks> accessed 20 August 2025. 19. ibid. 20. See Jonathan A Obar and Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, ‘The Biggest Lie on the Internet: Ignoring the Privacy Policies and Terms of Service Policies of Social Networking Services’ (2020) 23 Information, Communication & Society 128 <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1486870> accessed 1 September 2025; Rishab Bailey and others, ‘Disclosures in Privacy Policies: Does “Notice and Consent” Work?’ (Social Science Research Network, 11 December 2018) <https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3328289> accessed 1 September 2025. 21. This includes, for instance, information pertaining to sexual orientation, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, and is recognised under Article 9 of the GDPR. Consent under GDPR must be “free, specific, informed and unambiguous.” Explicit consent presents a higher threshold and as per the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) guidelines, the term explicit refers to the manner in which the data subject grants consent as an “express statement of consent.” See Guidelines (EDPB) 05/2020 on Consent Under Regulation 2016/679 [2020], para 93. 22. ‘Digital Personal Data Protection Bill Gets President’s Assent’ The Economic Times (12 August 2023) <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/ india/digital-personal-data-protection-bill-gets-nod-from-president/articleshow/102660125.cms?from=mdr>. 23. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 <https://www.meity.gov.in/ static/uploads/2024/06/2bf1f0e9f04e6fb4f8fef35e82c42aa5.pdf>. 24. See Siddharth Sonkar, ‘How Dating Apps Exploit India’s Loosely Formed Definition of “Personal Information”’ (ThePrint, 27 March 2022) <https:// theprint.in/pageturner/excerpt/how-dating-apps-exploit-indias-loosely-formed-definition-of-personal-information/889370/> accessed 27 August 2025. 25. Although there are legitimate criticisms highlighting the limitation of the sensitive personal data approach in privacy law, recognising additional safeguards for such personal data can perhaps ensure a higher degree of user awareness, especially when no alternative frameworks exist. See Daniel J Solove, ‘Data Is What Data Does: Regulating Use, Harm, and Risk Instead of Sensitive Data’ [2023] SSRN Electronic Journal <https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=4322198> accessed 1 September 2025; Centre for Communication Gov- 58 Platform Accountability in Online Dating ernance, ‘Comments on the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022’(2022) <https://ccgdelhi.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/ccg-nlu-commentsto-meity-on-the-draft-digital-personal-data-protection-bill-2022-334.pdf> 26. Centre for Communication Governance, ‘Comments on the Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules’ (2025) <https://ccgdelhi.s3.ap-south-1. amazonaws.com/uploads/ccg-nlud-comments-on-the-digital-personal-dataprotection-rules-2025-1-742.pdf); CCG, ‘UNDP Guide- Drafting Data Protection Legislation: A study of regional frameworks’ (UNDP 2023), p 46. <https://ccgdelhi.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/undp-drafting-data-protection-legislation-march-2023-443.pdf>. 27. For instance, Tinder recently rolled out a game where users can interact with AI personas and receive scores and feedback to improve their dating skills. See Lauren Forristal, ‘Tinder’s New AI-Powered Game Assesses Your Flirting Skills’ (TechCrunch, 1 April 2025) <https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/01/tinders-newai-powered-game-assesses-your-flirting-skills/> accessed 1 September 2025. Grindr plans to launch an AI wingman. See Reece Rogers, ‘I Took Grindr’s AI Wingman for a Spin. Here’s a Glimpse of Your Dating Future’ Wired <https://www. wired.com/story/hands-on-with-grindr-ai-wingman/> accessed 1 September 2025. 28. See Paige Collings, ‘Dating Apps Need to Learn How Consent Works’ (Electronic Frontier Foundation, 21 July 2025) <https://www.eff.org/ deeplinks/2025/07/dating-apps-need-learn-how-consent-works> accessed 27 August 2025; Lauren Forristal, ‘Hinge’s New AI Feature Determines If Your Prompt Response Is Too Basic’ (TechCrunch, 15 January 2025) <https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/15/hinge-new-ai-feature-determines-if-yourprompt-response-is-too-basic/> accessed 27 August 2025; Xavier Harding, ‘Dating Apps And Your User Privacy — What To Keep In Mind’ (Mozilla Foundation, 16 May 2024) <https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/dating-app-user-privacy/> accessed 10 August 2025. 29. Collings (n 28); ‘Bumble’s AI Icebreakers Are Mainly Breaking EU Law’ (noyb, 26 June 2025) <https://noyb.eu/en/bumbles-ai-icebreakers-are-mainly-breaking-eu-law> accessed 27 August 2025. 30. Alison Frankel, ‘Pssst! Match.Com Does Not Want You to Know about This FTC Case’ Reuters (6 July 2022) <https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/pssstmatchcom-does-not-want-you-know-about-this-ftc-case-2022-07-06/> accessed 27 August 2025. 31. Joe Tidy, ‘Kink and LGBT Dating Apps Exposed 1.5m Private User Images Online’ (BBC News, 30 March 2025) <https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ c05m5m5v327o> accessed 7 April 2025. 32. The study reported that this vulnerability has now been addressed after it was reported to OkCupid. Platform Accountability in Online Dating 59