Grindr Reportedly Sold Precise Location Data for Years

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Grindr reportedly sold precise location data about its users for at least two years.

The dating app used this data so it could sell targeted advertisements based on a user’s current location, The Wall Street Journal reports. “The information was available for sale since at least 2017, and historical data may still be obtainable,” sources tell the paper.

Here’s what the Journal has to say about this extensive dossier of Grindr location data:

“The data didn’t contain personal information such as names or phone numbers. But the Grindr data were in some cases detailed enough to infer things like romantic encounters between specific users based on their device’s proximity to one another, as well as identify clues to people’s identities such as their workplaces and home addresses based on their patterns, habits and routines, people familiar with the data said.”

It’s not difficult to de-anonymize such information. A newsletter called The Pillar demonstrated as such in July 2021 when it used Grindr location data to out a Catholic priest who used the service in what Motherboard described as “the inevitable weaponization of app data.”

Grindr reportedly offered this location information via MoPub, the ad network Twitter acquired in 2013 and sold to AppLovin for $1.05 billion earlier this year, as well as other advertising partners. The Journal says MoPub made that data available to UberMedia, which rebranded as UM in 2021 and was acquired by Near later that year. UberMedia then sold that data to its own clients.

If that paragraph seems convoluted, well, that’s because the data collected by many popular apps constantly makes its way through winding chains of custody like this. These are billion-dollar businesses that peddle in data about people who’ve probably never heard of them.

Grindr told the Journal that it has updated its policies to prevent advertisers from purchasing detailed location data. “Since early 2020, Grindr has shared less information with ad partners than any of the big tech platforms and most of our competitors,” a spokesperson said.

The company still notes that it sells “general device location (such as device country/region/city)” to its advertising partners, however, and says it “works both with third party Ad Partners […] and with several partners to provide ads and product promotions within our own services.”

Grindr hasn’t responded to a request for clarification regarding the changes to its policies it made in 2020, how it handles precise location data, and if that information is still being used by its internal ad services or how Grindr users can verify the company’s claims about their privacy.

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