This Pride month, we’re calling on the dating app Grindr to prioritize LGBTQ+ user safety by making privacy the default across its platform. That means no more sharing personal data with advertisers or training AI on private information without users’ opt-in consent.
Grindr is a dating app for the LGBTQ+ community; and for queer people, privacy violations can have life-altering consequences.
Information that reveals someone’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status
can be used
by employers, governments, family members, scammers, or bad actors to inflict harassment, discrimination, arrest, or violence. For example,
data from Grindr
and other gay dating apps was sold by data brokers and used to 'out' (the act of disclosing someone's sexual orientation without permission) a gay priest in 2021.
Despite being the world's most popular gay dating app, Grindr has repeatedly mishandled users' sensitive data
.
Grindr has been caught sharing users'
HIV status
and
precise location
with advertisers without obtaining valid consent, resulting in
reprimands
and
fines
in several countries. Its former Chief Privacy Officer even
sued
, alleging the company fired him for raising concerns about Grindr prioritizing “profit over privacy."
Grindr ended several of its
most
egregious
data sharing practices after they were exposed. But more changes are needed if Grindr wants to earn back trust and prove its commitment to users’ privacy and safety. This Pride month, we’re calling on Grindr to make privacy the default and ensure the immediate implementation of two changes to better protect its users:
Opt Users Out of Behavioral Advertising by Default
Grindr currently allows users to opt out of behavioral advertising, but that protection is not enabled automatically (
except in some unspecified regions
). As we’ve
long
warned
, behavioral advertising relies on the collection and sharing of personal data across a vast network of advertisers, intermediar
