Users of Grindr may have a new feature to look forward to. A software company has just introduced a “Digital Health Passport” that can be linked to a dating profile to show users are COVID-19-negative.
The Daily Mail reports that Manchester, UK-based cyber developer VST Enterprises has announced that several app companies have approached their firm about a new technology. Said tech would allow a doctor or nurse to upload the results of a government-standardized COVID-19 test to a user’s health profile. That profile would then link to a user’s dating profile, allowing potential dates to see their results. The profile would also include a countdown to when the user would need a follow-up test.
Related: Nurse who contracted COVID-19 at Winter Party shares shocking before & after photos
“We firmly believe that the digital health passport alongside government-approved testing kits is the key to removing the lockdown restrictions in a gradual and controlled way. The current technology being trialed using Bluetooth and proximity apps is fundamentally flawed because of its privacy issues of real-time tracking, the security and data breaches which we are already seeing and being reported and the reticence for citizens to uptake and download the tracing app,” Louis-James Davis, CEO of VST Enterprises, said in a statement.
The technology, known as “COVI-pass,” can also include recent air travel or visits to large venues like sporting arenas. VST has also announced the first 15 countries to receive the technology: Italy, Portugal, France, Panama, India, the US, Canada, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, Mexico, United Arab Emirates and The Netherlands.
The first 50 million passports begin shipping next week, though test shortages in different regions–including the US–could hinder the efficacy, at least in the initial release.
50 50
Considering a huge number of people don’t get tested, that the symptoms take days or weeks to show up, that people can be reinfected after an episode, and that there is no vaccine, any form of COVID ‘pass’ is meaningless.
acrzywrld
For over 40 years the gay community has tiresly worked to remove the stigma of being HIV positive. Now, in a matter of weeks, the world has managed to stigmatize COVID-19. The unintentional negative side affects of this Grinder add-on are going to be felt for a long time.
Gary Q VV
Are any of you aware that “in January 2016 Grindr announced that it sold a 60% stake in the company to a Chinese gaming company, Beijing Kunlun Tech, for $93 million. By 2017, the app was averaging 3.6 million daily users. Kunlun purchased the remainder of the company for $152 million in January 2018”. We were greedily sold out by Grindr’s owners. Maybe some you don’t care that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is getting all of your info, photos, videos, contacts, emails, messages, cloud content, and everything else on your phone/computer – that includes EVERYTHING – and with total access to your OS (operating system), including your camers and microphones. Advice: Find another dating/hookup app. Spread the word, be more involved in your LGBTQ+ community, and not your dick. Some may be thinking that I’m ‘chicken little’ shouting “the sky is falling” to deaf ears. But, stay away from the Chinese and Russians — FACT: they both suppress, imprison and even execute LGBTQ+ people. Chew on that.
Chrisk
I remember their CEO coming out a few years ago saying he didn’t believe in SSM. I guess some interview he did with their own Grindr news organization which they promptly fired for leaking the story.
That story should have sunk the company but barely made a dent.
Chrisk
No effing way. China may not give a f*ck but this is a complete violation of our HIPPA law here.
batesmotel
Don’t know how many would actually use it or how accurate it would be anyway. It’s not like people are getting tested, let alone tested regularly. If they got tested and tested negative, then whose to say that a week later they didn’t come into contact with something where they would be tested positive, but they’d have no idea. Maybe just not meet up for now if you’re that concerned about getting it.
LetsGetLit
I guess to most people, Grindr is just another cheap piece of plastic with a “made in China” label that we all scoff at for less than a second; we shrug it off then it’s off to brunch.