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…
> How else are app developers supposed to analyze their app performance? The open source, self-hosted pickings are slim
There is Countly Enterprise Edition for this purpose (both mobile and web). Privacy focusing and on-prem installation.
I think that adoption of privacy preserving data aggregation/analysis will become the norm. The most immediate applications are 1) telemetry data that is used for monitoring (for example, Google Chrome uses differential privacy for collecting this data), and, 2) services like Google Maps and Tinder-like dating apps. In these applications, essential user information can be represented as integer/boolean values (is use…
This requires trusting at least one of the servers to store your raw data, correct? Local differential privacy doesn't. You might imagine having servers in different countries so that the whole system can't be subpoenaed by any one country, but I believe this is a legal gray area that becomes illegal if you say you're doing this to be intentionally subpoena-proof (in the US).
>>> becomes illegal if you say you're doing this to be intentionally subpoena-proof
Reminds me of the relationship between the Mafia and the homosexual community of the early-mid 20th century. The Mafia didn’t particularly like gays, but they ran all of the gay bars because it gave them the opportunity to blackmail their patrons.
The fact they could be blackmailed means the rest of the society didn't like them either. If a minority is doing something today that the rest of society thinks is wrong but actually isn't, then don't we have a more serious problem already by persecuting whoever is the modern equivalent of early 1900's gays?
Totally different things and it’s almost an offensive comparison.
Someone’s HIV status, for example, could definitely expose them to social stigma. Is that a problem? Yeah; but it doesn’t change human behavior — there are some things we would prefer to keep private.
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,…
Realistically, if they don't care about users data, what hinders them from collecting data on .grindr.com and grindr.mobi and sharing with third-parties?
If I’m selling my company and a Chinese buyer offers me more, I’m not going to turn him down just because he’s Chinese.
The question doesn't mean much without knowing more details. In general, most people would say that the short-term financial outcome is not the only important factor.
They may say that, but they're probably still going to take the short-term financial outcome because there's no discernible long-term downside for them.
Does anyone have any information on how Scruff handles that information? Also, does HIPAA say anything about technology companies outside of the medical field's data that may voluntarily collect HIV status?
CEO of SCRUFF here, and daily reader of HN. We have not, do not, and would not share this information with third parties. The data that we share with our third-party ad providers is: - Your location (so you can get those local car dealer ads) - Your gender - Your age - The targeting keyword "gay" We currently use AdMob and MoPub to provide our network advertising. More broadly, this kind of information is never somet…
Thanks for the reply! Long time subscriber, first time caller here. What are you doing to protect the information of people who aren't out or even gay on your platform? Do you share whether or not someone identifies as trans, bisexual, dl, msm, straight etc? You have information that's just as sensitive and private as HIV status that from your reply it seems like you haven't considered. I love your platform and would hate to see anyone outed for any part of their identity by Data you supply to an ad network
It might be worth making another post to highlight an additional concern: this repository itself appears to leak profile images of many Grindr users. The raw-data folder includes nearly 14,000 files, including many ads and scripts, but also thumbnails of many user profiles. This file[1] for example, once you strip out the HTTP headers, is a JPEG that shows the legs and gym socks of one user. This one [2] shows a user…
Good job finding sensitive information in the repo but I hope you ensured that the data is deleted before making this issue public