Grindr Is 'Horrible' At Protecting Your Data, Per New User Privacy Report

Mozilla, the software community behind Firefox, has revealed that Grindr, as well as other dating apps, aren't protecting our personal information as much as we would like to think.

Per its 2021 Privacy Not Included guide, the in-depth Valentine's Day-themed report reveals that Grindr is the least secure queer dating app and went as far as deeming it "the worst of the worst" when it comes to security policy compared to their studied 24 dating apps reviewed by the community. "Not going to sugar coat this: Grindr is a horrible dating app for user privacy and security," the study wrote in their opening line of their research. "Launched in 2009, Grindr is the largest dating app for gay, bisexual, queer, and trans men. The app matches people based on location using the location tracking features on your mobile phone. Grindr is free to sign up and free users have complete functionality within the app, as long as they are willing to endure lots of ads."

Back in 2018, the app was acquired by a Chinese Chinese tech company, which U.S. intelligence experts flagged as an issue for national security and for valid reasons. It was later reported that the app provided information about users' HIV status to third party vendors. Meanwhile, Lex, a dating app for lesbians, queer women, and trans and gender non-conforming folks, prevailed above the rest as the safest of the studied apps.

"Given Grindr is the world’s largest gay dating app, and given that in some parts of the world outing someone as gay can get them killed, these bad data privacy practices aren’t just awful and illegal, they are also life threatening," the report continued. "As a location based app that tracks users movements and matches them based on proximity, Grindr knows a lot about it users. … What’s the worst that could happen? Grindr could leak your location, homophobes could search you out, find you, and murder you for being gay. This has happened already in the real world. Grindr is bad. Our recommendation, delete Grindr." Click here to read the full report!

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