Grindr user data has been for sale for years, says newspaper

Data from millions of users of the gay dating app Grindr was collected from a digital advertising network and made available for sale, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The information has been available for sale since at least 2017, and historical data can still be obtained, sources told the American newspaper.

According to Grindr, two years ago, the company cut off the flow of location data to any ad network, ending the possibility of collection.

The commercialization of this information, which was previously hidden, illustrates the thriving market for user data that can be collected from mobile devices.

US security officials were concerned about the matter. This is because Grindr data was used as a way to show various government agencies the intelligence risks related to commercially available information.

The data provided by Grindr did not contain personal information such as names or phone numbers. However, in some cases, they were detailed enough to deduce information such as romantic encounters between specific users based on how close their devices are to each other.

Through these data, it was also possible to identify clues about people’s identity, such as their places of work and residential addresses based on their patterns and habits.

However, a company spokesperson said in a statement: “As of early 2020, Grindr has shared less information with ad partners than any of the major tech platforms and most of our competitors.”

He said the company pays a price for reducing shared data, including lower ad quality for users and lower revenue. The spokesperson further stated that the activities described by the sources would not be possible with Grindr’s current privacy practices, which have been in place for two years.