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Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

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Re: Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

#11

Post by jorblumesea »

ycombonator wrote: post #2

The Chinese hacked the entire OPM database and siphoned of the data of all government employees. Hacked Marriot. It’s anyone’s guess how will they mine and use this information.

Their intentions are pretty obvious. Use that data to identify intelligence sources to blackmail, find potential double agents to recruit, and stop potential infiltration into their own intelligence agencies.

It's easy to think of ways to combine all of these hack data streams into one database that can be cross referenced. You go to China on a visa, your entry to the country trips a flag in a system, and an intelligence agent shows up at your hotel to recruit you.

Re: Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

#12

Post by this_user »

kristopolous wrote: post #5

The most amazing part of this acquisition was discovering there's a gay dating app called "blue" that I bet most americans, even those in the space, have never heard of with 10 times the traffic of grindr. And grindr isn't obscure or known only among gays, I've heard it joked about on late night television and light-hearted NPR shows. It's part of the zietgiest whether you're in the target demo or not. I guess the do…

Bloomberg's 'Decrypted' podcast had an episode [0] about the company and founder behind Blue. They are also getting into the business of surrogacy abroad for gay Chinese couples. The interesting thing is that the company have managed to frame what they are doing as a business matter first and foremost. This is helping them avoid pressure from the government that are usually hostile towards LGBT causes.

[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2019-04-15/the-app-that...

Re: Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

#13

Post by Redoubts »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #10

This data set will be a blackmail goldmine. I'd be shocked if the Chinese government hasn't already mined it for "discreet" users.

There’s so much throwaway data in there I’d be hard pressed to believe there’s much of value. They don’t even validate the users email beyond “contains @“.

Re: Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

#14

Post by wbl »

Redoubts wrote: post #13
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #10

This data set will be a blackmail goldmine. I'd be shocked if the Chinese government hasn't already mined it for "discreet" users.

There’s so much throwaway data in there I’d be hard pressed to believe there’s much of value. They don’t even validate the users email beyond “contains @“.

Luckily (or not) database join with the OPM hack is trivial.

Re: Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

#15

Post by avocado4 »

I know a number of Tencent engineers through college and past tech job. There's this game among employees on certain teams - find compromising pics your ex has sent through WeChat messaging, and put them side by side with the screenshot of your ex breaking up with you (as in "who's laughing now").

I don't think this is a political / trade issue, but rather a difference in cultural norms. It strikes me when people outside of China willingly send their most private info (including nudes & PII) to WeChat, Grindr, Tiktok, or any other Chinese apps.

Re: Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

#16

Post by zeta0134 »

Redoubts wrote: post #13
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #10

This data set will be a blackmail goldmine. I'd be shocked if the Chinese government hasn't already mined it for "discreet" users.

There’s so much throwaway data in there I’d be hard pressed to believe there’s much of value. They don’t even validate the users email beyond “contains @“.

I wouldn't be so sure. Grindr tracks users locations pretty precisely, and although many users hide their faces in profile pictures, many more demand a face be sent through direct messages, etc. If you have location and a face, and your target is even remotely popular, some internet sleuthing can put the rest together pretty easily.

How much of this can be validated and proven to not be a masquerade (fake pictures / profiles are ridiculously common, as are bot accounts on the platform) is anyone's guess, but for blackmail purposes, that doesn't really matter.

Given how the app is marketed, and how pervasive it is throughout gay culture in the US (pretty much everyone in that community at least knows about it, whether they use it or not) just being shown to have an account on the service carries a pretty strong implication that the user is seeking a hookup of some kind. Now imagine if the target is married, or they're a closeted politician... it's pretty easy to see how dangerous the dataset can be from there.

Re: Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

#17

Post by stochastic_monk »

avocado4 wrote: post #15

I know a number of Tencent engineers through college and past tech job. There's this game among employees on certain teams - find compromising pics your ex has sent through WeChat messaging, and put them side by side with the screenshot of your ex breaking up with you (as in "who's laughing now"). I don't think this is a political / trade issue, but rather a difference in cultural norms. It strikes me when people out…

That’s profoundly horrifying.

In America, unauthorized dissemination of nude photos is both criminalized and widely reviled. What I don’t know is if it’s that difference or end to end encryption platforms that makes the difference.

Re: Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

#18

Post by sneak »

stochastic_monk wrote: post #17
avocado4 wrote: post #15

I know a number of Tencent engineers through college and past tech job. There's this game among employees on certain teams - find compromising pics your ex has sent through WeChat messaging, and put them side by side with the screenshot of your ex breaking up with you (as in "who's laughing now"). I don't think this is a political / trade issue, but rather a difference in cultural norms. It strikes me when people out…

That’s profoundly horrifying. In America, unauthorized dissemination of nude photos is both criminalized and widely reviled. What I don’t know is if it’s that difference or end to end encryption platforms that makes the difference.

There are entire websites dedicated to it, and the photographers/subjects willingly provide the data to companies like Facebook and Snapchat under permissive licenses (read the TOS!) in the US.

I am not sure the contrast between the US and China is quite as stark as you imagine.

Re: Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

#19

Post by sneak »

verst wrote: post #4
kissickas wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't exactly hack Marriott. They hacked Starwood, which had been bought by Marriott. I don't mean to nitpick but there are far more Marriott guests than Starwood guests.

The Marriott system is still riddled with vulnerabilities. Had someone transfer 200,000 points out of my account recently. No way they stole my session cookie, and the password was very complex, unique to Marriott and generated / stored by LastPass. There was no attempt to change my password. Now what's interesting is that the points to airline infrastructure likely is a SPG legacy backend that is still running.

Most people who have workstation malware are unaware of the fact that they have workstation malware.

Re: Behind Grindr's Doomed Hookup in China

#20

Post by [deleted] »

avocado4 wrote: post #15

I know a number of Tencent engineers through college and past tech job. There's this game among employees on certain teams - find compromising pics your ex has sent through WeChat messaging, and put them side by side with the screenshot of your ex breaking up with you (as in "who's laughing now"). I don't think this is a political / trade issue, but rather a difference in cultural norms. It strikes me when people out…

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