Gay dating and hookup app Grindr is coming under fire for revealing information about its users’ HIV status with third-party companies.
According to BuzzFeed News, users of the favourite app are given the option to share their HIV status, record the last time they were tested, and whether they’re taking HIV treatment or the HIV-preventing pill PrEP.
However, Grindr was then passing along the data to Apptimize and Localytics, which help to optimise apps.
SINTEF, a Norwegian nonprofit research company discovered the HIV information also shares alongside users’ GPS data, phone ID, and email addresses, effectively making it possible to identify Grindr users with their health condition.
Speaking to BuzzFeed, SINTEF’s Antoine Pultier said: “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.”
Scott Chen, Grindr’s chief technology officer, took to Tumblr to defend the data sharing:
“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. As a result, you should carefully consider what information to include in your profile.”
Chen also says “Grindr has never, nor will we ever sell personally identifiable user information – especially information regarding HIV status or last test date – to third parties or advertisers.”
According to the BBC, Grindr has now stopped sharing information with Apptimize and will soon stop sharing with Localytics.
Grindr was founded in 2009 and describes itself as “the world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people,” has 3.6 million global users.
