Behind Grindr’s Doomed Hookup in China

(Reuters) – Early last year, Grindr LLC’s Chinese owner gave some Beijing-based engineers access to personal information of millions of Americans such as private messages and HIV status, according to eight former employees, prompting U.S. officials to ask it to sell the dating app for the gay community. While it is known that data privacy concerns prompted the crackdown on Kunlun, interviews with over a dozen sources with knowledge of Grindr’s operations, including the former employees, for the first time shed light on what the company actually did to draw U.S. ire and how it then tried to save its deal. About a month after CFIUS’ September order, Kunlun told the panel the Beijing team’s access to Grindr’s database had been restricted, the source close to the company said.

Source: www.reuters.com