Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Report: Grindr Shared HIV Status, Location With App Optimization Services

A report, published by Buzzfeed on Monday, says that Los Angeles-based gay dating and hookup app Grindr had been sharing information on users' HIV status with two app optimization services, coupled with their GPS data and information. According to a data analysis by a research firm, Grindr apparently had been providing that information to Apptimize and Localytics, two third party developers of app optimization software, which the report claimed could potentially expose the information of Grindr's users to hackers or others. In that report, Grindr said it was using those two services--widely used by app developers to optimize how those apps work--to make its app better, and that it has stopped sharing that info. Grindr also said Apptimize and Localytics were not sharing that data with anyone else.

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