Bumble Messaging Privacy Policy 2025: Features, Controls, and Everything You Need to Know

With digital dating sharply on the rise, privacy practices and data use on apps like Bumble matter more than ever. If you care about who can see your activity, how your data is handled, and what tools exist to protect your profile and chats.

Table of Contents

1. Bumble’s Privacy-First Approach: An Overview

2. What Information Does Bumble Collect in Messages?

3. Message Encryption, Moderation, and Scanning

4. Bumble’s New Privacy Features for 2025

5. Control: Incognito Mode, Snooze, and Manageable Permissions

6. ID Verification for Safer Messaging

7. Share Date: Extra Safety When You Meet IRL

8. Reporting, Blocking, and Moderating Inappropriate Messages

9. Data Storage, Retention, and Third-Party Sharing

10. AI Features, Consent, and Controversies

11. Privacy for Sensitive Data and Community Guidelines

12. How to Change Your Privacy Settings on Bumble

1. Bumble’s Privacy-First Approach: An Overview

Bumble’s 2025 privacy philosophy is built around user control, minimizing pressure, and transparency in how your data and messages are used. The app never shows read receipts, online status, or last seen indicators. This protects you from unwanted surveillance and creates a stress-free messaging environment.

2. What Information Does Bumble Collect in Messages?

Bumble collects and processes the following when you use its messaging:

• Conversation content: Scanned for inappropriate or unsafe language, but encrypted in transit.

• Message metadata: Time stamps, match duration, device/IP data.

• Profile-linked data: Information used to personalize and improve the service, such as preferences or interests visible in chat.

• Optional: ID verifications and profile badges for authenticity—these may involve biometric scans and facial recognition when verifying photos.

3. Message Encryption, Moderation, and Scanning

• Encryption: All chat data is encrypted in transit, making interception by outside parties extremely difficult.

• Moderation: Bumble employs both AI and human moderators to scan messages for hate speech, abuse, or illegal content. New features (like “Review Before You Send”) warn users about potentially inappropriate messages before they’re delivered.

• Automatic flagging and reporting: Suspicious messages may be flagged before they even reach the recipient, providing powerful reputational protection.

4. Bumble’s New Privacy Features for 2025

Major updates in 2025 include:

• ID Verification: Users can earn a verified badge by uploading government-issued ID and a selfie. You can now filter matches to show only those who’ve completed this step.

• Share Date: Before meeting in person, share your plans (who, where, when) with a trusted friend directly in the app, making meetups safer.

• Review Before You Send: An AI-powered feature that identifies problematic language or images and prompts users to reconsider before sending.

5. Control: Incognito Mode, Snooze, and Manageable Permissions

• Incognito Mode: A premium feature hiding your profile from everyone except those you swipe right on—granting nearly full privacy from random users and lurking exes.

• Snooze Mode: Pause your profile completely (free), making you invisible on the platform for as long as you want. Your matches and chats remain, but new users can’t see you.

• Strict permissions: Users are now advised to set only the “strictly necessary” app permissions to further protect privacy.

6. ID Verification for Safer Messaging

Bumble’s ID Verification feature ensures that profiles are real and reduces the risk of scams or impersonation. It’s optional but growing in popularity, with markets in the US, UK, India, and Europe leading adoption. Verified users display a badge, and you can filter matches by this status—adding both safety and peace of mind.

7. Share Date: Extra Safety When You Meet IRL

This new tool lets users send the details of upcoming dates (name, place, time) to a friend or family member directly from within Bumble, and plans can be updated in real time. It’s a direct response to the rising demand for dating safety, offering accountability and easier emergency alerts.

8. Reporting, Blocking, and Moderating Inappropriate Messages

• Easy reporting: Any user can report, block, or unmatch someone for inappropriate content, with just a few taps. Reports trigger investigation and, if necessary, bans.

• Message review system: AI blurs and flags potentially lewd or harmful photos/images, warns users, and offers recipients the choice to view, delete, or report before seeing them.

9. Data Storage, Retention, and Third-Party Sharing

• Message content and scans: Kept only as long as needed for security/enforcement, then permanently deleted (never longer than 3 years after last interaction).

• Partner companies: Some data, including ID verifications, handled by vetted third parties like Veriff; retention limited to 72 hours for such data.

• Privacy by default: Bumble’s Code of Conduct requires privacy “by default and by design” for all new features and internal data processes.

• No selling without consent: Clear consent is required for sharing or selling sensitive data; users can request to view or delete stored information.

10. AI Features, Consent, and Controversies

In 2025, Bumble faced privacy complaints related to its new AI “Icebreaker” features, which use personal profile information (with or without explicit consent, in some cases) to auto-generate conversation starters. Advocacy groups have called for more explicit opt-in and greater transparency about what data is sent to third-party AI providers.

11. Privacy for Sensitive Data and Community Guidelines

• Sensitive info (beliefs, sexuality, politics) is never required and only made visible or public if a user explicitly consents.

• All community guidelines strictly prohibit exploiting, selling, or misusing personal information, and users violating privacy rules face prompt bans.

12. How to Change Your Privacy Settings on Bumble

To manage your privacy:

1. Open the Bumble app.

2. Tap the profile icon, then the gear (“Settings”).

3. Navigate to “Security & Privacy” and review your login methods, permissions, and profile visibility.

4. Adjust who can see your profile (Incognito), check what permissions are enabled, and review your list of blocked users.

5. For help on privacy or data removal, use the “Contact Us” form or email privacyteam@team.bumble.com.

Read More: Bumble Messaging Security in 2025: Features, Best Practices, and Safety Innovations

In Sum:
Bumble continues to innovate for privacy and safety in digital dating. With its robust array of privacy controls—ranging from message moderation and encryption to profile management, Incognito/Snooze modes, and ID verification—users have more security and autonomy than ever before. For any uncertainties, always double-check the official Bumble Privacy Policy for the most reliable guidance