The Grindr meeting application shared the HIV status of its users

According to BuzzFeed, who was able to confirm the work carried out by Norwegian researchers from Sintef, the meeting of meetings which claims 3.6 million active users each day, shared with Apptimize and Localytics many information provided by its members. These two data analysis services, which measure the behavior of the users of the application for statistical purposes, work with several companies. They had access to user email addresses, but also to their GPS contact details, their HIV status as well as on the date of their last screening.

Grindr, the gay meeting application, is no longer available in China

If homosexuality is no longer a crime in China since 1997, it is nonetheless taboo, falling regularly under the internet censorship.

By Benjamin Ferrari with AFP

Sopa Images via Getty Images

China – The application of meetings for homosexuals Grindr has disappeared from several platforms in China where the authorities strengthen their control on the Internet and eliminate online behavior that displeases the Communist Power in power.

The data from the Qimai mobile research company show that Grindr was removed Thursday from the Apple App Store in China and several Chinese platforms for Android. Google Play is not available in the country. Neither Grindr nor Apple responded to AFP requests. The local competitors of Grindr, like Blued, remain available.

The Chinese Internet regulator is currently carrying out a campaign aimed at eliminating illegal and sensitive content during the Lunar New Year Holidays and the February Winter Olympic Games.

Homosexuality in China, plus a crime, but always taboo

This campaign aims to “create an online atmosphere civilized, healthy, festive and conducive to public opinion during the Lunar New Year,” the administration said in a press release.

Last year, important university groups for the defense of LGBTQ rights had seen their accounts blocked on WeChat, a popular social network in China.

Even if homosexuality has not been a crime since 1997 in the most populous country in the world, the marriage of people of the same sex is prohibited and LGBTQ questions remain taboos. Censorship of web content is combined with that of representations of gay romance in the cinema, now the LGBTQ community under pressure.

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The Grindr dating application shared the HIV status of its users

Sensitive information communicated to other companies. The Gay Grindr dating application is questioned by an investigation by the American site Buzzfeed For having shared the personal data of its users, and in particular their HIV status, with other companies. In a press release, the company first explained that data sharing was “standard” and that Grindr was a “public forum” before announced that it was going to stop this sharing of data.

According to BuzzFeed, who was able to confirm the work carried out by Norwegian researchers from Sintef, the meeting of meetings which claims 3.6 million active users each day, shared with Apptimize and Localytics many information provided by its members. These two data analysis services, which measure the behavior of the users of the application for statistical purposes, work with several companies. They had access to user email addresses, but also to their GPS contact details, their HIV status as well as on the date of their last screening.

More vulnerable data

“Thousands of companies use these platforms respected. These are usual practices in the world of mobile applications. No information belonging to a user is sold to third -party companies. We pay these software publishers to use their service, “said Grindr’s technical director in Buzzfeed. But the sensitivity of the data in question is problematic. Indeed, even if Grindr has never been hacking, the fact that the data is accessible to several companies makes them more vulnerable.

The aggregation of all the data shared by Grindr could indeed allow malicious people to find users of the application. To try to stop the controversy, the dating application finally announced that it would stop sharing this information with partners.

A betrayal”

The association for the defense of digital rights Electric Frontier Foundation deemed “disappointing” Grindr’s response. “You betrayed the LGBT community,” said a surfer under Grindr’s text. Founded in 2009, Grindr, who describes himself as “largest global network of gay men”, was the first to use geolocation technology on smartphone. The American group claims 3.6 million daily active users.

This controversy comes while Facebook has been nailed to the pillory for more than two weeks, accused of not having protecting data from more than 50 million users, who have finished – via a third party – in the hands of a firm data analysis that would have used them for political purposes.