Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating app
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Re: Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating app
#2This is the sixth attempt in the past 24 hours to post this exact story. I wonder what it was about this attempt that caused it to spike up in points vs the other 5 attempts, which only maxed out at like 2 or 3 points?
Re: Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating app
#3What makes Grindr special in this regard ? I’m sure there are other dating or social apps out there that also could be foreign owned and used for espionage....???
Re: Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating app
#4I thought Cfius could only block deals. I’ve never heard of them forcing a sale and the article doesn’t really speak to this odd situation.
Re: Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating app
#5What makes Grindr special in this regard ? I’m sure there are other dating or social apps out there that also could be foreign owned and used for espionage....???
They could use the info collected from users who happening to have state secrets (def-cons, state employees, etc...). The bottom line is that the Chinese could use this fact to blackmail those users to cough up what they know in exchange for forceful "coming out of a closet" announcement.
Re: Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating app
#6This is the sixth attempt in the past 24 hours to post this exact story. I wonder what it was about this attempt that caused it to spike up in points vs the other 5 attempts, which only maxed out at like 2 or 3 points?
The usual stochastic nature of getting to the front page, most likely. Since the WSJ is paywalled, we've re-upped the earliest Reuters post instead of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19505863.
Re: Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating app
#7What makes Grindr special in this regard ? I’m sure there are other dating or social apps out there that also could be foreign owned and used for espionage....???
They could use the info collected from users who happening to have state secrets (def-cons, state employees, etc...). The bottom line is that the Chinese could use this fact to blackmail those users to cough up what they know in exchange for forceful "coming out of a closet" announcement.
Lots of clueless closeted politicians use it.
Re: Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating app
#8I thought Cfius could only block deals. I’ve never heard of them forcing a sale and the article doesn’t really speak to this odd situation.
From TFA:
>The development represents a rare, high-profile example of CFIUS undoing an acquisition that has already been completed. Kunlun took over Grindr through two separate deals between 2016 and 2018 without submitting the acquisition for CFIUS review, according to the sources, making it vulnerable to such an intervention.
Re: Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating app
#9What makes Grindr special in this regard ? I’m sure there are other dating or social apps out there that also could be foreign owned and used for espionage....???
Most likely because Grindr is primarily used for casual / anonymous same-sex encounters. Its users may be more susceptible to blackmail / extortion.
There are many users of the app who are not open about their lifestyle (“DL”)
Re: Told U.S. security at risk, Chinese firm seeks to sell Grindr dating app
#10What makes Grindr special in this regard ? I’m sure there are other dating or social apps out there that also could be foreign owned and used for espionage....???
They could use the info collected from users who happening to have state secrets (def-cons, state employees, etc...). The bottom line is that the Chinese could use this fact to blackmail those users to cough up what they know in exchange for forceful "coming out of a closet" announcement.
Other dating apps also allow users to state their sexual preferences, so although Grindr might have a higher density of potential blackmail material, they're not even guaranteed to have the largest collection. There must be something else that sets them apart from others. (Maybe they were the first to be acquired by a Chinese company?)