Grindr has a track record of saying that data shared with brokers is encrypted and unidentifiable, despite the use of such data to out a Catholic priest, others
The latest scandal to rock the Catholic Church was both incredibly unnerving and entirely preventable. Why isn't anyone doing anything about it?
GizmodoShoshana Wodinsky
Context & Ripple Effects
Grindr’s assurances about data handling came after earlier reporting that it shared users’ HIV-status and testing information with third parties, a practice it said it stopped in response to scrutiny. A subsequent study also placed Grindr among apps sharing intimate information with data brokers, making the claimed anonymity of brokered data central rather than incidental.
The resignation of a senior Catholic official after a media outlet obtained alleged app and location data turns that privacy question into a concrete harm. It shows why intimate app data reaching brokers can be identifying in practice even when a company characterizes it as encrypted or unidentifiable.
First-order effects
Grindr users face a direct loss of confidence in the company’s claim that broker-shared data cannot identify them, particularly where dating-app and location signals can be combined.
The Catholic Church must manage the immediate fallout from the official’s resignation after the reported acquisition of his alleged data, documented in the official’s departure.
Second-order effects
Data brokers handling app and location records face sharper scrutiny over whether nominally anonymized datasets can be used to identify and target individuals.
Dating-app operators that share sensitive data with outside vendors face pressure to treat encryption and de-identification as insufficient safeguards when downstream buyers can link records to real people.
Third-order effects
The episode points toward privacy enforcement and product design being judged by the real-world identifiability and downstream use of data, rather than by whether a dataset is labeled anonymous.
If sensitive app data continues to circulate through broker markets, people in stigmatized or professionally vulnerable groups will bear disproportionate exposure from commercial tracking systems.
The trend: Sensitive-data privacy is shifting from a question of stated anonymization to whether brokered datasets can be recombined into actionable identities.
In this case, Catholic Substack publication The Pillar said it used location data tied to Grindr to trace the movements of a priest, and then outed him publicly as potentially gay. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that this led to his resignation. https://www.vice.com/...
Anyway, this statement from Grindr is not convincing. (If it's infeasible, how did it happen?) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
In today's On Tech: The risks of America's unfettered location data economy seem hypothetical. Until the data is used to track every movement of an individual. https://www.nytimes.com/...
ok; here's my 😈Hot Take😈 on that catholic location data story: none of this shit would've happened if adtech co's weren't doing *everything in their power* to make a quick buck off the queer community, regardless of regulations https://gizmodo.com/...
...with the result that you won't get hired, you won't get credit or loans, you won't get promoted, your voice will not be amplified, and you will never get the benefit of any doubt. You'll never know which algorithm, which dataset is screwing you - just that you're being screwed…
props to @ShiraOvide for calling out the “flat soda” issue in tech privacy reporting: when everything u write is abt why [TK INSERT ICKY STUFF HERE] is abhorrent/unsurprising/completely preventable, the worst parts start feeling....... Kinda Okay https://www.nytimes.com/...
Following the tale of a Catholic priest geolocated and outed via Grindr app + identified via data broker? @swodinsky's story is a must-read. This is not the first time a major life change was forced upon a person thru spying via Grindr data. There have been deaths as well. https:…
Today in the On Tech newsletter, Shira Ovide writes that a Catholic official's resignation shows the real-world consequences of practices by America's data-harvesting industries. https://www.nytimes.com/...
How many more years will it take for mobile app privacy to be addressed? I pressed big players in 2010/2011 to address mobile app privacy. Industry self regulation & regulatory guidance haven't worked. Regulatory enforcement is woefully lacking. Force change. Now. https://twitter…
Not only does Grindr know exactly how gay you are, so do 100000000s of data brokers and advertisers who will use it to target and/or exclude you based on your sexual orientation. https://twitter.com/...
This is a MASSIVE story - a Catholic news substack got @Grindr location data and used it to out a very senior priest. He's now resigned. From @mboorstein and @marisa_iati https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
It's now house style at WaPo to use “queer” in this manner? (Note the bars are still “gay bars.") https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
We really have not grappled with how bad this type of doxxing and outing is going to get once face recognition for personal use becomes common We need to shut down these systems before they become vigilante weapons that ruin people's privacy and lives https://www.pogo.org/... htt…
Very funny that they think the real issue is that he was involuntarily outed, but the cherry on top is the non-binary pronoun for a Catholic priest, notoriously limited to one gender. https://twitter.com/...
Outing is complex. An entire industry based on lying about the identifiability of individuals in their data sets is not. This is also another ex of how LGBTQ people/queer content face unique privacy and tech-related risks than those whose behavior conforms to traditional norms. h…
This is a huge condemnation of the data broker industry — and has the hallmarks of a future @FTC investigation: Blogger @PillarCatholic purchases ‘anonymous’ location data from unnamed data brokers and uses it to out a catholic priest. WaPo story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ …