Grindr

A supermajority of Grindr employees have launched a campaign to form a union, announcing the plan via the Communication Workers of America (CWA) to collectively fight for layoff protections, preserve current benefits, add cost of living pay raises, and strengthen LGBTQ+ rights in the workplace, among other demands.

According to Grindr United’s press release announcing its formation, about 100 eligible members from departments across the company including cloud engineering, customer experience, design, engineering, IT, marketing, privacy, product and quality assurance signed representation cards at Grindr.

Employees are asking Grindr management to recognize their union, but if they refuse, employees will petition the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election, according to The Los Angeles Times. (U.S. Labor law allows companies to negotiate and recognize a union once they have signed up a majority of employees (which Grindr United has), or to hold out for a government-run election.)

The former chief privacy officer at Grindr says the company fired him after he raised concerns about privacy violations on the platform, according to the lawsuit he filed in a state court in Los Angeles.

Ron De Jesus claimed in the lawsuit that the LGBTQ+ company willfully ignored his concerns about its “alarming” privacy practices concerning personal user data, according to Bloomberg Law, including retaining sensitive data like nude photos without the consent or knowledge of the user. The document alleges the company also collected the HIV status of users, even after they deleted their accounts.

"In other words, deleted users' private communications, including naked photos and other highly sensitive content, such as HIV status are not only still stored in Grindr's systems, but also its vendor systems, and potentially retrievable by any employee of Grindr, or its third-party support vendor, through a backdoor to Grindr's application," De Jesus claimed in the lawsuit, according to Business Insider.

Grindr has launched a web version of its popular LGBTQ+ dating app, allowing people the choice to see more profiles at once and larger photos of potential matches.

According to an exclusive report from Fast Company, the new desktop version will be available to paying users, and will show six profiles on one screen as well as a chat box to message. The web version also offers larger photos of each potential match.

Some Grindr users aren’t comfortable with having the Grindr app on their phones, so this new web version provides a way to use the service more discreetly. Users will still have to download the app on their phones to set up their accounts and subscribe to the service, according to Fast Company, but would be allowed to delete it after it’s established and use the web version going forward.

Australia’s Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has ordered the country’s top ten dating app services to hand over information on sexual violence reports, including Tinder, Bumble and Grindr.

According to Australian Associated Press, the information will include reports on “the extent of harm being experienced by users” as well as the safety protocols of these apps. Rowland has also requested data on the number of reports the app companies have received in regard to sexual harassment and abuse among users on these platforms, including during a message exchange or after a date.

Each dating app company is also required to share its protocols for preventing banned users from returning to the app under a new name and account, as well as the actions it has taken in response to reports, including police referrals or other services provided to users, according to AAP.

Popular gay dating app Grindr has issued a warning to its users in Egypt after reports surfaced that police were posing as potential matches to target and arrest LGBTQ+ people.

While homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt per se, according to Associated Press, authorities frequently prosecute the LGBTQ+ community, and specifically gay men, on the grounds of “morality laws” such as “debauchery” and “violating public decency.”

The warning comes as human rights groups, media and activists have noticed authorities cracking down on the LGBTQ+ community in Egypt via digital platforms such as gay dating apps. According to The Hill, the U.S. State Department acknowledged this in a report they issued in 2021 citing “credible accounts of violence ‘targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons and use of the law to arrest and prosecute arbitrarily such persons.’”

A group of conservative Catholics based in Colorado spent millions to buy tracking data from dating apps to identify gay priests, and then shared the information with regional Bishops.

The Washington Post, which broke the story, noted that the purchasing and use of the data is legal, and is “emblematic of a new surveillance frontier in which private individuals can potentially track other Americans’ locations and activities using commercially available information.”

The Post heard audio recordings of executive members discussing the organization’s mission and this particular project. Jayd Henricks, the group’s president, did not respond to questions from the Post, but instead posted an article on the website First Things saying he was proud to be part of the group, and that the purpose was to “help the Church be holy…” He also wrote that the group has conducted other research, but did not provide details.