Grindr

Grindr’s 2020 is off to a difficult start. In just a few short weeks, Grindr was accused of violating the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) data protection legislation by the Norwegian Consumer Council, found itself the subject of three complaints filed with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, and was suspended from Twitter’s ad platform as a result. The popular gay dating app is also under investigation by the U.S. House Oversight and Reform subcommittee for doing an inadequate job of screening minors.

Adding to Grindr’s growing list of concerns is new research showing that the company’s Android application was exploited to defraud advertisers. According to a report from Pixalate, the Palo Alto-based fraud detection firm that discovered the scam, the app was used to facilitate a cross-device ad fraud scheme that tricked advertisers into thinking they were purchasing ads on Roku-connected devices. Pixalate named the scheme “DiCaprio” after discovering the A-list Hollywood name used in a file containing some of the malicious code.

A committee from the U.S. House of Representatives is investigating popular dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid following a report that found underage users and sex offenders were using the apps.

According to a report from AP, the House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy sent separate letters on Thursday January 30th to Bumble, Grindr, The Meet Group, and Match Group (which owns Tinder and OkCupid among others). The letters asked for information on “users’ ages, procedures for verifying ages, and any complaints about assaults, rape or the use of the services by minors,” according to AP.

The subcommittee is also seeking additional information on privacy policies for each of the apps, and what users see when they are asked to review or accept such policies. Recently, dating apps have also come under fire for third-party sharing of personal data, where user information wouldn’t be protected by the dating app’s own privacy policy.

Dating app Grindr, currently owned by Chinese company Kunlun Tech, might be off the market soon thanks to a bid by the Milan-based app design company Bending Spoons.

According to Global Dating Insights, Bending Spoons has offered $260 million for the popular gay dating app, headquartered in West Hollywood. Reports are also linking investment firm H14 to the deal, which is headed up by Barbara, Eleonora, and Luigi Berlusconi, children of Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The app’s original founder Joel Simkhai sold his company for $93 million to Kunlun Tech in 2016. 

Popular dating apps including Tinder, OkCupid, Happn, and Grindr have come under fire from consumer rights groups and privacy coalitions for sharing personal data of their users with third parties, specifically advertisers.

A study was published this month from the Norwegian Consumer Council that showed 10 apps were collecting sensitive information including a user’s exact location from GPS tracking, sexual orientation, religious and political beliefs, drug use and other information and sharing it with at least 135 different third party companies, according to several reports. Some of those businesses included household names like Google and Facebook, but also lesser-known adtech companies such as OpenX, MoPub, and AppNexus. The study only looked at apps on Android phones, according to NPR.

This type of data collection and sharing violates the European Union’s rules to protect user data online under the General Data Protection Regulation.

Grindr G4E Homepage

In an effort to protect users around the world, Grindr has announced new safety features and unveiled a ‘Holistic Security Guide’ in six languages. These releases are designed to help queer users navigate dating in countries where a culture of homophobia, biophobia and transphobia puts them at risk.

Scott Chen, President of Grindr, said in a statement, “As Grindr has grown to become a vital part of the gay, bi, trans, and queer community, we feel a responsibility to provide important information and evolving tools to facilitate our users’ safe dating experience. Our work in improving the well-being for the LGBTQ community around the globe is far from finished, but we are proud of these additional features to help provide a safer platform for our users.”

Gay dating app Grindr is headed towards an IPO again, now that the U.S. national security panel CFIUS has dropped its opposition.

Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech purchased Grindr fully in 2018, but the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. found this problematic and forced Beijing Kunlun to sell the app by June 2020. According to a report from CNBC, a source familiar with the situation said the efforts to sell Grindr by the deadline were continuing, even as plans for the IPO were moving forward.