OPW – Feb 4 – Match Group's new CEO, Andrey Andreev moves on, US Inquiry Over Underage Use, Tinder & GDPR, Grindr hit with a class-action lawsuit.
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LAW360 – Feb 4 – Grindr is auctioning its Android users' personal data, including the sexual orientation and exact GPS location of its largely LGBTQ user base, to the highest bidder without their consent, a user has said in a proposed class action filed in New York federal court. According to the complaint, Grindr instructs users to read the privacy policies of MoPub's "more than 160" partners prior to giving consent for their data to be shared. Given the sheer amount of reading a user would have to accomplish upon sign-up, Grindr users are unable to provide informed consent because it's next to impossible to read each advertising partner's privacy policy before the app times out.
ASSOCIATED PRESS – Jan 31 – Bumble, Grindr, The Meet Group and the Match Group are the current targets of the investigation by the U.S. House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy. The subcommittee is seeking information on users' ages, procedures for verifying ages, and any complaints about assaults, rape or the use of the services by minors. It is also asking for the services' privacy policies and details on what users see when they review and agree to the policies.
by Barbara Ortutay
See full article at Associated Press
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OPW – Jan 28 – Match Group's new safety features, Grindr's new potential owner, Grant moves on, IDEA SUMMIT.
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BUZZFEEDNEWS – Jan 27 – In just the past three weeks, Grindr has been slammed by the Norwegian Consumer Council for exposing users' personal information, suspended from Twitter's ad network as a result of that investigation, and alleged to have been the way a Michigan hairstylist met the man who brutally murdered him. Adding to those concerns is new research showing that Grindr's Android app was exploited by ad fraudsters in a scheme that stole money from advertisers. Amin Bandeali, CTO of Pixalate, the Palo Alto ad fraud detection firm that identified the scam, said Grindr was likely targeted because of its large user base. Here's how the scam worked: A normal banner ad was bought on Grindr's Android app. The fraudsters then attached code that disguised the Grindr banner ad to look like a Roku video ad slot. This fake ad space was sold on programmatic advertising exchanges, the online marketplaces where digital ads are bought and sold. So cheap banner ads were used to resell more expensive video ads.
WEHOVILLE – Jan 23 – According to Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, Bending Spoons, an app developer based in Milan, has made a bid for Grindr. Grindr, currently owned by Chinese Kunlun Tech, has been ordered by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment to sell its stake in Grindr by June 2020. Bending Spoons and a group of Italian banks have offered $260M to buy Grindr.
USA TODAY – Jan 21 – Grindr, OkCupid and Tinder were at the center of controversy last week when researchers accused the companies of disclosing highly personal information and breaking privacy laws. Each app denied many of the accusations. When users sign up for a dating app, "they're putting information out there that people can use against them. Whether it's hackers or predators," said Jo O'Reilly, a data privacy expert at ProPrivacy. And like many other tech sectors, dating apps are rife with data breaches.
Dating app tips from an Internet privacy expert:
by Dalwin Brown
See full article at USA Today
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ADAGE – Jan 15 – Twitter says it suspended Grindr, the gay dating app, from its ad network after a report revealed privacy concerns with how the app shared personal data with marketing partners. The new report, commissioned by the Norwegian Consumer Council, alleged that Grindr transmitted personal information on its ~3M daily users worldwide to ad tech partners, including Twitter's MoPub, which is a mobile ad network that helps apps make money by filling their ad inventory. The report also names other advertising platforms OpenX and AppNexus, which help brands bid on ads through platforms like MoPub to appear on apps like Grindr. The report calls for a fines of Twitter, OpenX, AppNexus and Grindr. Under the GDPR, the maximum fine for a violation is up to 4% of annual revenue. In Twitter's case, that would amount to $120M, based on $3B revenue from 2018.
NEW YORK TIMES – Jan 13 – Popular dating services like Grindr, OkCupid and Tinder are spreading user information like dating choices and precise location to advertising and marketing companies in ways that may violate privacy laws, according to a new report released by the Norwegian Consumer Council, a government-funded nonprofit organization in Oslo. Grindr also sent a user's location to multiple companies, which may then share that data with many other businesses, the report said. OkCupid app sent a user's ethnicity and answers to personal profile questions to a firm that helps companies tailor marketing messages to users. OkCupid has recently posted a list of ~300 advertising and analytics "partners" with which it may share users' information. Tinder sent a user's gender and the gender the user was looking to date to two marketing firms. The Norwegian group said it filed complaints asking regulators in Oslo to investigate Grindr and five ad tech companies for possible violations of the European data protection law.
by Natasha Singer & Aaron Krolik
See full article at New York Times
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by Arno Pedram
See full article at NBC News
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