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GAY DATING APP Grindr has come under fire today for sharing information about users’ HIV status or locations with two companies enlisted to optimise its software.
Grindr chief technology officer Scott Chen said in a Tumblr post that sharing data with partners such as Apptimize and Localytics was “industry practice” and that steps were taken to protect people’s privacy.
“As a company that serves the LGBTQ community, we understand the sensitivities around HIV status disclosure,” Chen said.
“Our goal is and always has been to support the health and safety of our users worldwide.”
Grindr users have the option of sharing their HIV status and when they were most recently tested.
Researchers worried that including the health information with other data such as location and email address could result in people being identified.
Online rights champion Electric Frontier Foundation called Grindr’s response “disappointing”.
The Los Angeles-based company said that it uses Apptimize and Localytics to test and validate its platform, and that data it shares with them could include users’ HIV status or location fields.
Sensitive data are encrypted when sent, and vendors are under strict contractual terms to keep it secure and confidential, according to Chen.
Discovery of data sharing
Norwegian nonprofit research group SINTEF uncovered the data sharing, and concern spread in the US after Buzzfeed reported the findings.
“Grindr has never, nor will we ever sell personally identifiable user information – especially information regarding HIV status or last test date – to third parties or advertisers,” Chen said.
He noted though that Grindr is a public platform, and that should be kept in mind when deciding what to put in profiles.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) called Grindr’s data sharing “an egregious breach of confidentiality laws,” demanding it “immediately cease and desist the reckless practice”.
“It is extremely unfortunate that those men who have been courageous enough to share their HIV status, be it positive or negative, on their Grindr profiles, may have now had that most personal data indiscriminately shared by Grindr,” said Michael Weinstein, the AHF president.
We laud those Grindr members for their courage and challenge Grindr to quickly get its act together to restore the confidentiality all members deserve.
News website Axios reported that Grindr’s security chief said the company has stopped sharing users’ HIV status with its third-party vendors.
“You guys should just close up now,” read one of the few comments in an online chat forum under the Grindr post at Tumblr.
“No one cares about your efforts or industry standards. You betrayed the LGBT community in more than just the one way.”
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I was under the impression that the county boundary wouldn’t change, the areas in question would just be administered by the other council. This situation makes perfect sense when you consider places in county Clare in the vicinity of Limerick city or Waterford port been in kilkenny or these areas of athlone for example
Yea, I’m still not clear. Are they talking about changing actual county borders or just local authority boundaries?
Most of Limerick City west of the Shannon was in Clare and in Connacht for that matter
What are you on about?
@Ken Mitchell: The county border boundries as such won’t change, this isssue concerns the area of Monksland which is to the West of Athlone and therefore in Co. Roscommon. Monklands has a large retail sector, industrial estate and residential housing estates all which make a very significant contribution to the Roscommon County Council coffers. If this was lost to Athlone Town Council it would represent a massive fall in revenue for Roscommon which impacts the rest of the county hence why it is such an emotive subject
No, they wanted to actually change the border. This would habe resulted in monksland, Roscommon’s second largest town now being in westmeath.
@Tweety McTweeter: The government doesn’t have the authority to tell the people or the GAA what county they are in. This was administrative only, and would’ve made a whole heap of sense.
As with Kilkenny and Waterford, people seem concerned only with the revenues their local authority would lose and which a ‘rival’ local authority would gain. Yet, the areas in question are densely populated and require that revenue for their own maintenance. This is the same attitude that had Leitrim zoning enough residential for a city, and Meath trying to building enough houses for the entire region during the celtic tiger years. Just collect as much revenue as possible, and compete with your neighbouring county to do so. As public policy, it makes zero sense.
The fact is that if you lose the commercial rates from an area, you also lose the responsibility of looking after that area. When you are unable to live up to that responsibility because the area in question is part of a city/town in another council’s area, maybe you losing the revenue is an acceptable sacrifice to avoid the mismanagement of the densely populated urban periphery.
In this case, Athlone will continue to be split between two counties, for reasons that are entirely resolvable. Given that Westmeath and Roscommon belong to the same state, I’m sure there could’ve been a transitional arrangement to ease the apparent burden of losing a cash cow.
It’s heated border disputes like this that make me glad we are part of the EU in order to preserve the peace.
Everyone who lives near the Roscommon/Westmeath border knows the savages on the other side are absolute animals with no respect for their neighbours.
If you ever want a visual definition of what a “bacon & cabbage head” looks like….look no further than Michael Fitzmaurice.
Better than looking at a scrawny no face such as yourself ‘eircodes’ I’d say you’re about as attractive as a rotten turnip judging by your snot flicking comments.
@Get Lost Eircodes:
Play the man good lad. Did you get your eircode yet?
Just as long as the y don’t construct a ‘Hard Boundary’ where innocent Hill Walkers might fall over any holes left in it.
Really doesn’t matter … English set the boundaries after the conquest…. boundaries are just a convenience.
It was actually the Normans who set the borders – hence why they’re named ‘CountyX’ rather than ‘Xshire’, ‘county’ being derived from Old French.
Pure and simple, bring back ming the merciless!
You might have to review that Harry…
Which part? The shire (‘scir’ as it was in Anglo-Saxon) was an existing unit of division in England when the Normans invaded. The Normans simply tacked ‘-shire’ onto most of the existing land divisions (apart from places like Kent for example which were named for old kingdoms). In Ireland on the other hand they started more or less from scratch. Contrast with Scotland, which also uses ‘shire’ rather than ‘county’ – this began under the English-speaking population that lay outside of Norman control.
Terrible article, doesn’t explain the situation.
” he was concerned any change could disrupt his constituent’s lives.”
excuse my ignorance, but in what way would it affect people’s lives? it sounds dramatic
From an Englishman’s perspective, county boundaries seem to matter a lot more in Ireland than they do over here. Take for instance how the GAA still rigidly adheres to the 32 historic county model. Or how any discussion of Irish partition invariably makes reference to 6/26 counties even though in NI they now use districts rather than counties as political units.
The English completed the shiring of Ireland when Wicklow was given county status. The GAA then used the English county system as a base for their own competitions. GAA should grovel on its knees and thank Mother England for bestowing on them such a useful organizational unit. Notice how embedded this is when the new counties in the Dublin area cannot field their own county teams, for example Fingal.
It’s funny how even in the North, unionists identify with the traditional counties also.
Roscommon drivers are the worst in the country
have your say