Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Grindr Will No Longer Share Users' HIV Information In Order To 'Allay People's Fears'
Buzzfeed News: Grindr Will Stop Sharing Users' HIV Data With Other Companies
The popular gay hookup app Grindr said late on Monday that it would stop sharing information about its users' HIV status with third-party analytics companies. The announcement came after BuzzFeed News revealed that Grindr had been securely providing two companies — Apptimize and Localytics, commonly used services to help optimize apps — with some of the information that Grindr users include in their profiles, including HIV status and "last tested date." (Ghorayshi, 4/2)
The Washington Post: Grindr Will Stop Sharing HIV Data To Third-Party Firms Amid Backlash
Bryce Case, Grindr’s head of security, said that sharing information with Apptimize and Localytics is “standard industry practice for rolling out and debugging software” and was done securely to test and optimize the app’s features, such as HIV testing reminders. “Any information we provide to our software vendors including HIV status information is encrypted and at no point did we share sensitive information like HIV status with advertisers,” Case said in a statement. “As the testing of our feature is completed, any information related to HIV status has been removed from Apptimize and we are in the process of discussing removal of this data from Localytics.” (Phillips, 4/3)
The Associated Press: Gay Dating App Grindr To Stop Sharing HIV Status
Grindr says it’s important to remember it is a public forum and users have the option to post information about their HIV status and date when last tested. It says its users should carefully consider what information they list in their profiles. (4/3)
The New York Times: Grindr Sets Off Privacy Firestorm After Sharing Users’ H.I.V.-Status Data
An increasing number of online users in the United States, along with some members of Congress, are questioning the tech industry’s largely unfettered collection and data-mining of consumers’ personal details. The Grindr controversy also highlights the widening regulatory gap between the United States, which lacks a comprehensive federal consumer privacy law, and Europe, where privacy is viewed as a fundamental human right, with laws to back it up. (Singer, 4/3)
Buzzfeed News: Two Senators Just Demanded That Grindr Explain How It's Sharing Its User Data
Two Democratic senators sent letters to the popular gay dating app Grindr on Tuesday, asking for detailed information about how they handle sensitive user data. Letters also went to Apptimize and Localytics, the two analytics companies that Grindr sent its users' HIV status data to. “Simply using an app should not give companies a license to carelessly handle, use, or share this type of sensitive information,” the letter, written by Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, stated. “Grindr and those with whom it shares its users’ sensitive information has an obligation to both protect this data and ensure users have meaningful control over it.” (Ghorayshi, 4/3)
