If you think online dating apps are just a bit creepy, then this latest study is about to freak you all the way out.
A straight Wired writer decided to do a little experiment with Grindr to see just how secure the app is with location data. Spoiler alert: it isn’t. At all.
The writer installed Grindr, made his profile pic a cat, then turned off the “show distance” feature. He then contacted computer security researcher Nguyen Phong Hoang in Japan and gave him his general Brooklyn neighborhood. Then, this happened:
Within fifteen minutes, Hoang had identified the intersection where I live. Ten minutes after that, he sent me a screenshot from Google Maps, showing a thin arc shape on top of my building, just a couple of yards wide. “I think this is your location?” he asked. In fact, the outline fell directly on the part of my apartment where I sat on the couch talking to him. Hoang says his Grindr-stalking method is cheap, reliable, and works with other gay dating apps like Hornet and Jack’d, too.
It turns out, Hoang and two other researchers just published their findings that they can pinpoint the location of pretty much anyone who uses these apps to within a few feet, even when they attempt to hide their location.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Why is this scary?
That added degree of invasion means that even particularly privacy-oriented gay daters—which could include anyone who perhaps hasn’t come out publicly as LGBT or who lives in a repressive, homophobic regime—can be unwittingly targeted. “You can easily pinpoint and reveal a person,” says Hoang. “In the US that’s not a problem [for some users,] but in Islamic countries or in Russia, it can be very serious that their information is leaked like that.”
The rest of the article is here, and while it’s a bit technical, it’s well worth a read if you want to understand how all of this works. As always, be careful out there using the apps.
It turns out you’re not as safe as you think.
Larry
Strange…. wonder why no one has knocked on my door asking me out on a date.
1898
This has been a known issue for a long time, but I guess a reminder never hurts
stranger2myself
That’s very simple to do. You don’t need anything else than device with Android or Android emulator for your PC. Then you use one of many apps to change your location. By moving around certain area and refreshing list of people on any dating apps you can guess exact location of person. Especially if they have enabled option to show distance. In other case you just repeat whole process until you get possible location. FYI I’m not some creep. I just used it to find friends all over the world.
Stache
You mean to tell me someone can locate me while using Grindr? Wow. I’m so going back to Craigslist. You might get something completely different but it’s all anonymous as it should be.
MarionPaige
just prior to this report, there was a news item out of Florida of an organized gang of burglars who used a dating app to locate homes to rob after the occupants were lured away.
Daniel-Reader
Always better to be safe and informed.
okozyryatskiy
FREE dating for sex ??????? http://goo.by/w7wz4X