Gay Hookup App Grindr Says It Will Stop Sharing HIV Status with Other Companies

By: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

After the huge backlash the gay dating and social networking app, Grindr, which counts more than 3 million daily active users, announced that it would offer a feature reminding users to get tested for HIV. What followed is what sent Grindr into the lion’s den as Buzzfeed exposed Grindr of sharing customers’ HIV status with app optimization company Apptimize.

Following the story that shocked Grindr’s 3 million users per day, the company quickly issued a statement indicating that they were no longer sharing Grindr user’ HIV status with Apptimize.

Grindr further stated that they are discussing how to remove data from Localytics to make sure the information is deleted.

Grindr security chief Bryce Case told Axios that the story of the app’s data-sharing practices were “a misunderstanding of what was being shared and with whom,” said Case.

“I understand the news cycle right now is very focused on these issues.” said Case. “I think what’s happened to Grindr is, unfairly, we’ve been singled out. It’s conflating an issue and trying to put us in the same camp where we really don’t belong,” said Case referencing their customers to the victims of the Facebook scandal with data sharing by Cambridge Analytics who managed to capture nearly 100 millions Facebook users personal information.

Review several of the mainstream media’s coverage on this explosive story!

Following the heated backlash the company has received, they have said that it will change its policy to still allow advertisers to gain access to Grindr user information such as age, hobbies, interests, location and relationship status, but NOT HIV status information.

Researcher Antoine Pultier at the Norwegian nonprofit SINTEF, told BuzzFeed…”Because HIV information is sent alongside users’ GPS data, phone ID, and email, an individual’s status could easily be discovered,” said Pultier. “The HIV status is linked to all the other information. That’s the main issue. I think this is the incompetence of some developers that just send everything, including HIV status.” Pultier told Buzzfeed.

In its defense, Grindr’s chief technology officer Scott Chen, told BuzzFeed that the services provided by the two firms – Apptimize and Localytics, are solely intended to improve users’ experience.

“Thousands of companies use these highly regarded platforms. These are standard practices in the mobile app ecosystem,” Chen told BuzzFeed in a statement. “No Grindr user information is sold to third parties. We pay these software vendors to utilize their services.”

Watch Jack Harrison-Quintana, Vice President of Social Impact at Grindr, statement of this explosive story.

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