How do you use a free dating profile finder without violating privacy?

Bit of context before the question: I've been off apps for two years, and now free dating is the thing I can't work out.

I've read maybe a dozen articles on free dating and they all recommend the same five names in a different order.

I've asked this in two other places and got answers that clearly came from people who'd never touched free dating.

Practically speaking, for free dating I want to know:

• Whether free dating is honest about privacy up front
• Whether the free dating experience holds up after the first fortnight
• Whether free dating has real users outside the big metros

Any first-hand experience with free dating would help more than another list.

I keep the Datescout community open alongside the bigger names when I'm dealing with free dating.

The thing that caught me out with free dating was auto-renewal buried in a trial.

Have you looked at the privacy side of free dating yet, or still on the basics?

Disagree on one point: free dating is far less platform-dependent than people here are assuming.

Adding Datebie's free tier to the pile for free dating, where the community is smaller but people actually reply.

How long did you give free dating before deciding it was not working for you?

DominicA, that's roughly where I landed on free dating too. Read the small print on privacy before you commit to anything around free dating.

If privacy matters to you then free dating narrows fast, and if it does not you have far more room.

Be careful with free dating: several platforms in this space make deleting your data much harder than creating it.

If free dating is the question, the Datelink boards is at least worth ten minutes of your time before you pay for anything.