Grindr has been sharing users’ HIV statuses with third-party companies

A GAY dating app has been slammed for sharing sensitive information about its users — including their HIV status and GPS data — with third-party companies.

Grindr has been slammed for sharing sensitive user information with third-party companies.

FACEBOOK isn’t the only company sharing people’s data with third-party sources.

Grindr has been slammed after it was revealed the Los Angeles-based gay dating app was sharing information about its users’ HIV statuses with third-party companies.

Two companies hired by the app — Apptimize and Localytics — received some of the information that Grindr users chose to include in their profiles, including their HIV status and “last tested date”, according to research by Norwegian non-profit SINTEF.

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The report was commissioned by Swedish broadcaster SVT, which first published the findings.

The information was sent together with users’ GPS data, phone ID and email address, essentially meaning specific users and their HIV status could be identified, even if their profile didn’t include their name or other identifying features.

Users’ sexual orientation, relationship status and ethnicity were also shared, according to the analysis.

In a blog post described as “tone-deaf”, Grindr’s chief technology officer Scott Chen said sharing data with app partners was “industry practice”.

He also said it’s “important to remember that Grindr is a public forum”, saying users “should carefully consider what information to include in your profile”.

But many people in the LGBTI community disagree with this.

In an opinion piece for The Guardian, Brian Moylan says the HIV status leak has “betrayed” gay men.

“Gay men thought that Grindr was a safe space, where we were free to be ourselves away from judging eyes,” he writes. “It felt for us and by us, a place where we could be comfortable and understood.

“It turns out that it’s just another tech giant that would sell us out under the guise of community.”

Members of the LGBTI community say they feel betrayed by Grindr’s data leak.

Grindr has since announced it would stop sharing sensitive user information with third-party companies.

The change will take effect upon the app’s next update.

Grindr is yet to address why its analytics partners needed information about people’s HIV status.

The app has faced criticism in the past for not doing enough to address rising STI rates.

Michael Weinstein, the president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, told Vox that dating apps “don’t feel like it’s their responsibility” to do so.

He said online networks should engage more in promoting condoms and information about self-testing and STIs.

“If you’re going to hook up, protect yourself and your partner ... making that hip and cool is something the apps could help with a great deal,” Mr Weinstein said.

A recent report published by the Kirby Institute showed there has been a 63 per cent increase of gonorrhoea in Australia over the last five years, with 23,000 people diagnosed in 2016 alone.

While gonorrhoea and syphilis rates are on the rise in Australia, HIV rates have remained stable for the past five years.