Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties • Hacker News Board

Re: Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties

#81

Post by dragonwriter » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:15 PM UTC

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #76

billmalarky wrote: post #7

It's become clear over the last year there is a strong need for a data privacy regulatory agency in US government. I understand that regulation hampers growth, but the tech industry is mature and developed to the point that it's time to reel in "moving fast and breaking things" a bit.

This shouldn't be in the hands of a regulatory agency. Serious privacy violations should be legislated and treated as outright crimes, not just regulation infringements. Violating basic civil rights should not just result in the off chance of having to pay a fine. People like Zuckerberg belong in jail way more than the average drug dealer.

> This shouldn't be in the hands of a regulatory agency. Serious privacy violations should be legislated and treated as outright crimes, not just regulation infringements.

IHIPAA is largely in the hands of HHS as a regulatory body, and yet violation of its privacy mandates (including those HHS is empowered to detail by regulation) are “outright crimes” as well as also potential civil offenses, not some distinct and lesser category of “regulatory violations”.

Your argument seems deeply grounded in an incorrect assumption about what it means to involve a regulatory agency.

Re: Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties

#82

Post by kayfox » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:15 PM UTC

loceng wrote: post #67

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21

Even within its confines, Grindr's data are rich for blackmail. (Consider: images and messages sent and received within 100 feet of Capitol Hill.) It was recently acquired by an offshore billionaire [1]. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-12/china-tec...

Makes me think that data should be treated differently in the case of a potential new owner, allowing users to opt-out from their data from being transferred; you may trust the leadership and governance, and may not trust whomever takes over or who will newly has access to the data.

You can delete the data from your profile.

Re: Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties

#83

Post by Asparagirl » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:16 PM UTC

cavanasm wrote: post #53

amq wrote: post #24

A bit unrelated, but imagine how much data has Tinder collected, if Cambridge Analytica could do that much with just a comparatively unpopular quiz app.

The quiz app wasn't the real data source though was it? People who want to take the quiz have to press "yes" on a menu that vaguely mentions "We need your friends list" and things like that, and those permissions were used to harvest the data as far as I understood, not the quiz itself.

Yes, the quiz was the bait to get to the real prize, your friends list and their info, likes, etc.

However, your answers to a different Facebook quiz in 2014 were scrutinized by Cambridge Analytica, who were looking for the “dark triad” of personality traits, scouting for sociopaths:

https://mobile.twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/97590547206...

Re: Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties

#84

Post by jumelles » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #40

billmalarky wrote: post #7

It's become clear over the last year there is a strong need for a data privacy regulatory agency in US government. I understand that regulation hampers growth, but the tech industry is mature and developed to the point that it's time to reel in "moving fast and breaking things" a bit.

> It's become clear over the last year there is a strong need for a data privacy regulatory agency in US government. I wouldn't trust a governmental regulatory agency to aggressively fulfill it's mission. My impression is that in general they're too much at the mercy of politicians. I suspect a more effective strategy is to enact legislation that makes companies liable under civil law, with private citizens empowered…

> I wouldn't trust a governmental agency to aggressively fulfill it's mission. My impression is that in general they're too much at the mercy of politicians.

I think this sort of attitude is a big problem - instead of throwing our hands up and deciding that regulatory agencies have always been and thus will always be toothless, we need to give said agencies more power to enable them to actually enforce the rules. Right now, companies regularly weigh the costs of compliance against the costs of non-compliance because to a multinational corporation, the usual fines and punishments just don't hurt that much.

Companies that break the law should regularly never, ever recover financially.

Re: Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties

#85

Post by fnord123 » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

deltron3030 wrote: post #65

pavlov wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> regulation hampers growth Is there proof of this? Some countries like Germany and Sweden are both highly regulated and have fastest economic growth in the West.

Who's growing is the more important question. Regulation benefits the already big.

Some regulation is bad, but there are plenty of good examples. Regulation on the standards like GSM and use of SIM cards helped new entrants into the European markets. Net Neutrality, standardized electrical systems, etc have benefited everyone large and small. And of course, anti-trust regulations in the EU has not benefited Microsoft or Google.

Re: Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties

#86

Post by anigbrowl » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #40

billmalarky wrote: post #7

It's become clear over the last year there is a strong need for a data privacy regulatory agency in US government. I understand that regulation hampers growth, but the tech industry is mature and developed to the point that it's time to reel in "moving fast and breaking things" a bit.

> It's become clear over the last year there is a strong need for a data privacy regulatory agency in US government. I wouldn't trust a governmental regulatory agency to aggressively fulfill it's mission. My impression is that in general they're too much at the mercy of politicians. I suspect a more effective strategy is to enact legislation that makes companies liable under civil law, with private citizens empowered…

You're screwed either way. If a government agency enforces it, opposition politicians attack it. If courts enforce it, courts are attacked instead and opposition politicians push for changes int eh law. the regulated industry will cheerfully spend shareholder money to drive public sentiment in a favorable direction. In US politics, money dominates everything else.

Re: Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties

#87

Post by arrosenberg » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

morley wrote: post #8

For what it's worth, the most private data here is shared to analytics companies for Grindr's only analytical use. My guess is that Grindr's agreement with Apptimize and Localytics asks for the strictest possible protection of that data. If anyone at Apptimize or Localytics has access to that data, I'd be incredibly surprised. This sort of deal isn't the same as sharing the HIV status to Google or Facebook so that ad…

This type of data is already protected under HIPAA and HITECH. Expand those protections to cover non-providers.

Re: Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties

#88

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

loceng wrote: post #67

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21

Even within its confines, Grindr's data are rich for blackmail. (Consider: images and messages sent and received within 100 feet of Capitol Hill.) It was recently acquired by an offshore billionaire [1]. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-12/china-tec...

Makes me think that data should be treated differently in the case of a potential new owner, allowing users to opt-out from their data from being transferred; you may trust the leadership and governance, and may not trust whomever takes over or who will newly has access to the data.

Change of control is a huge problem when it comes to privacy sensitive data. That's also a big factor in why I have a problem with governments collecting data. You may trust the present day administration (or not...), but who knows what a future administration (or occupying force) is going to be up to (beside the obvious risk of a leak or a breach).

The same goes for situations like bankruptcies and 'bad leavers', there is absolutely no way short of airtight procedures and implementations to guard your privacy over the length the data resides with some company. And for most companies that means 'forever' so even the smallest chances tend to sooner or later materialize. In almost every company that I've looked at over the last couple of years (including medical, fintech and so on) there was always at least one person and usually more that had unfettered access to all the data, either in bulk or through some convenient interface.

I'm not even sure this can be fixed anymore, but I am also not going to give up.

Re: Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties

#89

Post by ktta » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

andrepd wrote: post #73

buro9 wrote: post #45

If you are using Grindr on Android, install and use NetGuard. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.faircode.ne... https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard NetGuard is an open source local VPN that allows you to block DNS lookups to prevent calls to 3rd parties, and it does not require root access. Calls to all of the 3rd parties mentioned are blockable. Grindr does not need many domains to be operational to work,…

AFWall is a pretty user-friendly and configurable firewall. Let's you easily block apps from accessing the web. https://github.com/ukanth/afwall

AFWall requires root, while NetGuard doesn't. Important distinction now that rooting affects ability to use features like Google Pay, Netflix (offline download), etc.

Re: Grindr Shares Personal Information With Third-Parties

#90

Post by anigbrowl » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

deltron3030 wrote: post #65

pavlov wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> regulation hampers growth Is there proof of this? Some countries like Germany and Sweden are both highly regulated and have fastest economic growth in the West.

Who's growing is the more important question. Regulation benefits the already big.

That's truism that I don't think is accurate. You're assuming all regulation is complex and that this can directly drive administrative costs in linear fashion.