Grindr Broadcasting Users’ Sexual Orientation and Location to Dozens of Companies, Says New Report

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Grindr Broadcasting Users’ Sexual Orientation and Location to Dozens of Companies, Says New Report

Grindr is sharing much more personal information with other companies than most of its users are aware of and, because it is a gay hook-up app, essentially broadcasting their sexual orientation as well, according to a new report.

How the gay dating app @Grindr shares GPS location, AdID and the fact you use a gay dating app with @Twitter and other ad companies…

We (@NOYBeu) wrote three #GDPR complaints for @Forbrukerradet that were filed today!

More: t.co/jE7rGN7y2W #OutOfControl #Grindr pic.twitter.com/wB9nZmC6VE

— Max Schrems (@maxschrems) January 14, 2020

The New York Times reports: “Grindr, the world’s most popular gay dating app, transmitted user-tracking codes and the app’s name to more than a dozen companies, essentially tagging individuals with their sexual orientation, according to the report, which was released Tuesday by the Norwegian Consumer Council, a government-funded nonprofit organization in Oslo. … Grindr also sent a user’s location to multiple companies, which may then share that data with many other businesses, the report said. When The New York Times tested Grinder’s Android app, it shared precise latitude and longitude information with five companies.”

Read the report HERE.

Said Max Schrems, founder of the European privacy non-profit noyb: “Every time you open an app like Grindr advertisement networks get your GPS location, device identifiers and even the fact that you use a gay dating app. This is an insane violation of users’ EU privacy rights.”

“The Norwegian Consumer Council has filed three formal complaints against the gay/bi dating app Grindr and five adtech companies that were receiving personal data through the app: Twitter`s MoPub, AT&T’s AppNexus, OpenX, AdColony and Smaato. All complaints were filed, in cooperation with noyb, at the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (DPA) because of breaches of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),” according to a press release.

Grindr said it had not seen the report, when asked to comment by the New York Times. Much more at the link.

The NYT adds: “Grindr’s app, for instance, includes software from MoPub, Twitter’s ad service, which can collect the app’s name and a user’s precise device location, the report said. MoPub in turn says it may share user data with more than 180 partner companies. One of those partners is an ad tech company owned by AT&T, which may share data with more than 1,000 ]third-party providers.] In a statement, Twitter said: ] We are currently investigating this issue to understand the sufficiency of Grindr’s consent mechanism. In the meantime, we have disabled Grindr’s MoPub account.’”

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