Tinder is complying with a Russian government order to cooperate with its spy agencies - but insists it has not handed over any user data

Mike Blake/Reuters

Dating app Tinder on a phone.

• Tinder said it agreed to comply with an order from Russia placing it on a list of companies expected to help its security.
• Tinder said it had "registered to be compliant" with the government's order, which at the moment only involves formally joining a list.
• In a statement to Business Insider, Tinder said that it has not yet handed over any user data.
• It did not say what it would do if the Russian government were to make such a request. Under Russian law they would be expected to comply.
• Other tech products have been barred from Russia for refusing to share user data.

• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Dating app Tinder has agreed to comply with an order from the Russian government asking it to join a list of companies required to share data with its security agencies.

However, the company says it has not yet handed over any users data, leaving open the possibility that it could refuse a request from Russian authorities if it were made.

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Roskomsvoboda, a Russian non-governmental organization that highlights Russia's restriction of the internet, announced on Monday that Tinder now features on the list of companies required to share their data.

In a statement to Business Insider, Tinder confirmed that it has "registered to be compliant" with the government's order.

"We received a request to register with the Russian authorities, and, as of now, we have registered to be compliant."

But it said it had not yet handed over any users' data.

The statement continued: "This registration in no way shares any user or personal data with any Russian regulatory bodies and we have not handed over any data to their government."

Read more: Putin approved a drastic plan for Russia to cut itself off from the internet as a last-ditch defense from an all-out cyberwar

According to BBC Russia, the websites on this list, the "organizers of information dissemination (ORI)," must give the government access to "correspondence, audio, video and other user materials."

The material can be accessed by bodies including the FSB, Russia's security and counterintelligence service.

Oleg Klimov/Getty Images

The KSB building in Moscow, Russia.

The list is complied by Roskomnadzor, the state body responsible for censoring the media and communications.

Russia could request information from any of Tinder's users around the world, not just in Russia. It is then up to the company how to respond.

In 2018 the encrypted messaging app Telegram was added to the ORI list, but refused to share data with the government. The app was then banned in Russia.

Tinder, which was created in California, says that it operates in more than 190 countries and that one million dates a week are organized through its app.

Russia has recently increased its efforts to censor censoring the internet, and is creating its own, isolated internet that will only be accessible in Russia itself.