With Bumble’s Private Detector, You Have Control Over Unsolicited Nudes

We’re always looking to help keep our community protected and comfortable, which is why we created our safety feature, Private Detector, in an effort to better shield folks from harassment via the sending of lewd images.

Private Detector works by using A.I. to automatically blur a potential nude image shared within a chat on Bumble or Bumble For Friends. It’ll then notify you that you’ve been sent something that’s been detected as inappropriate; it’s up to you to decide whether to view or block the image. (You can also easily report the image. We don’t tolerate any bad behavior, including sending unsolicited obscene photos!)

The Private Detector feature joins a roster of safety initiatives we’ve rolled out since our founding in 2014 to help keep you safe while using Bumble and Bumble For Friends. These include a ban on guns and other weapons of violence in profile pictures, a ban on hate speech, and in-app video chat and voice call so you can meet new people without sharing your phone number or email before you’re ready. (We also use photo verification to help validate that the person looks like the photos on their profile.)

While Private Detector is designed to help keep our community safe from unsolicited nudes within our app, the internet at large can feel like the wild west, with online harassment all but openly tolerated everywhere from social media DMs to AirDrop. What’s more, when we originally researched the issue, we found there was no legislation in place to deter this sort of digital indecent exposure, also known as “cyberflashing.”

Bumble’s leadership team worked closely with politicians from both sides of the aisle in our home state of Texas, where HB 2789 passed unanimously in 2019. Now, as of summer 2022, Virginia has passed SB 493 thanks to a group of bipartisan lawmakers. The unsolicited sending of lewd nude images in both those states is now punishable by law. Read here for more information on how you can help us enact change in your state by contacting your local legislators and requesting to see a similar bill—or by supporting existing bills in CA, NY, PA, and WI.

Bumble also worked with key politicians and organizations in the United Kingdom, and it was announced in spring 2022 that the government will make cyberflashing a criminal offense in England and Wales under the proposed Online Safety Bill. 

Remember: if you receive an unsolicited nude photo on Bumble or Bumble For Friends, or experience any behavior that makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe while using the app, you can use our Block & Report feature. (More information on what happens after you report someone here.