Bumble will no longer require its new customers to have a Facebook account to log into its women-first dating app. Bumble is the latest company to distance itself from Facebook following the social network’s recent data-sharing scandal.
Bumble announced Monday that it will release a feature that lets new users register and log in with their phone number and without sharing their information with Facebook.
“Many of our users and prospective users have asked for a way to register for Bumble without linking their Facebook account, and we are excited to roll out this feature to our users starting today,” Jessica Collins, product marketing manager at Bumble, said in a statement. “We’re excited to continue to scale globally to new communities while preserving the Bumble experience that our users know and love.”
“Safety will continue to be our first priority and our moderation team will continue to preserve the Bumble experience,” Collins added.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress last week following revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that worked for President Trump’s campaign, gained access to data on as many as 87 million Facebook users.
There are hundreds of third-party apps from Candy Crush and Airbnb to Spotify, Uber, and Bumble that prompt users to sign in using their Facebook password. Bumble used the Facebook login as a way to speed up the registration process and verify identities. Bumble also used the information it gleaned from users’ Facebook profiles to offer common friends and help find potential partners.
But the recent data-sharing scandal has raised concerns about the safety of private information on Facebook, prompting Bumble to change course.
The dating app isn’t getting rid of Facebook altogether though. Users can still use Facebook to log in if they want to.