Popular Gay Dating App Grindr Is Disclosing Its Users’ HIV Status To Outside Companies
The HIV information is sent together with users’ GPS data, phone ID, and email. “The HIV status is linked to all the other information. That’s the main issue,” said Antoine Pultier, a researcher at the Norwegian nonprofit SINTEF, which first identified the issue.
Buzzfeed:
Grindr Is Letting Other Companies See User HIV Status And Location Data
The gay hookup app Grindr, which has more than 3.6 million daily active users across the world, has been providing its users’ HIV status to two other companies, BuzzFeed News has learned. The two companies — Apptimize and Localytics, which help optimize apps — receive some of the information that Grindr users choose to include in their profiles, including their HIV status and “last tested date.” (Ghorayshi and Ray, 4/2)
NPR:
Grindr Admits It Shared HIV Status Of Users
In a point-by-point response on its Tumblr page, Grindr said: "It's important to remember that Grindr is a public forum. We give users the option to post information about themselves including HIV status and last test date, and we make it clear in our privacy policy that if you choose to include this information in your profile, the information will also become public." (Neuman, 4/3)
Los Angeles Times:
Gay Dating App Grindr Changes Its Policy Of Sharing Users' HIV Status With Outside Vendors
Grindr, a gay dating app, will stop sharing users' HIV statuses with third parties after a report disclosed that the company passed the information on to two vendors. The West Hollywood company's policy change came after a BuzzFeed report Monday that said personal data was being passed to two outside vendors hired by Grindr to test the performance of its app. (Pierson, 4/2)
