Tinder will now let users run a background check on their matches — and boot users with violent criminal pasts

• Tinder is partnering with the startup Garbo to offer access to background checks.
• Users will get two free background checks — after that, they'll cost $2.50 per search.

Tinder users can now run a background check on their matches before they go on their first date.

The dating app announced Wednesday a new partnership with Garbo, a startup that runs streamlined and low-cost background checks. Tinder users will be able to access Garbo's service through the Tinder app and Tinder will offer two free background checks per user — after that, it's $2.50 per search plus processing fees.

The decision to offer access to background checks was made with user safety in mind, said Tracey Breeden, head of safety and social advocacy at Tinder parent company Match Group.

"Nobody wants to step into a space that's complex, that's difficult. Safety's hard," she said. "And we have to be a part of the conversation. We have to help find a solution."

Garbo is "not a silver bullet," Breeden said, but it's a part of that solution.

The service is able to search public records with just a few pieces of a person's information, like their first name and phone number. Garbo will then display any records it can find of arrests and convictions, as well as sex offender registry records.

But there are certain pieces of information Garbo won't include. The service won't display someone's home address, and it doesn't surface public records pertaining to drug possession, loitering, or vagrancy, as those types of offenses have had an outsized impact on people of color and marginalized communities, Breeden said.

Garbo founder Kathryn Kosmides told Insider that traditional background checks are both user-unfriendly and cost-prohibitive — in New York state, for example, they can cost as much as $95, she said.

Garbo's tool seeks to be low-cost, but perhaps more importantly, educational: The platform provides users access to resources if they're in a harmful situation and walks them through the information they're receiving from the background check.

A history of violent or harmful behavior can be an indicator of future abuse, and being able to access information about someone's criminal history gives people more knowledge to protect themselves, Kosmides said.

"It's the question of, what should be public and what should be private?" she said. "And when it comes to safety information, information that can help me make a more informed, personal safety decision, that should be public. I should be able to easily access that information."

Still, most dating app users probably don't expect that their matches will run a background check on them. Breeden said Tinder follows all privacy laws and isn't exchanging user information with Garbo. Plus, Tinder users can decide how much of their information they want to share on the platform.

But if a user runs a Garbo search and finds a history of violent crime, they're able to report it to Tinder and Tinder will investigate, she said.

"We don't want people who have a harmful criminal history of violence against people on our platform," Breeden said. "When we do find out about those people, they are banned and removed from not only the Tinder platform, but we can ban and remove them across all of our platforms."