Grindr bosses respond to ‘security flaw’ claims
By Josh Haggis
Grindr representatives has responded to claims that their app contains a potentially serious “security flaw”.
As reported yesterday (August 23), a message has been sent to over 100,000 Grindr users warning that their exact location can apparently be pinpointed by other users of the gay dating app – right down to which room they are sitting in at home.
The app is only supposed to supply users with an approximate distance between themselves and each person with whom they are exchanging messages. However, according to the message sent by an anonymous user, who is believed to be acting altruistically, a user’s precise whereabouts can be found by querying Grindr’s servers from three different locations and “triangulating” the results. Find out more about the warning message here.
In a statement given to NewNowNext, a Grindr representative dismissed suggestions that this is a “security flaw” – and recommended a way for concerned users of the gay dating app to give themselves additional protection. Read the full statement from Grindr below.
“We don’t view this as a security flaw. As part of the Grindr service, users rely on sharing location information with other users as core functionality of the application and Grindr users can control how this information is displayed. For Grindr users concerned about showing their proximity, we make it very easy for them to remove this option and we encourage them to disable ‘show distance’ in their privacy settings. As always, our user security is our top priority and we do our best to keep our Grindr community secure.”
Earlier this year, a report by Channel 4′s Dispatches revealed that hate groups in Russia have been using gay dating apps such as Grindr to “hunt down” gay men, before humiliating them in videos which are subsequently posted online. Read more abut the documentary here.