Tipster alerts Grindr users of location-based security breach
Hackers are claiming they can pinpoint the exact locations of Grindr users, right down to what room they are in.
NDTV reports an anonymous whistleblower has been sending more than 100,000 messages to Grindr users in more than 70 countries to warn them of the alleged security flaw.
In the messages, which NDTV reportedly found on Pastebin, the tipster writes: “Officials at Grindr have been informed several times within the past months about these issues, which would seem to imply that the concept of ‘social responsibility’ is lost upon Grindr.”
Grindr’s app only shows the amount of distance between two users.
The security breach, however, allegedly allows location-based data to be “extrapolated by querying Grindr’s servers from three different places and triangulating the information received,” according to NDTV.
This is possible because anyone can query Grindr’s servers without being authenticated.
Grindr told PinkNews via email: “We don’t view this as a security flaw. As part of the Grindr service, users rely on sharing location information with other users as core functionality of the application and Grindr users can control how this information is displayed.
“For Grindr users concerned about showing their proximity, we make it very easy for them to remove this option and we encourage them to disable ‘show distance’ in their privacy settings.
“As always, our user security is our top priority and we do our best to keep our Grindr community secure.”
Grindr users do have the option of turning off location information.
The app has more than five million active users worldwide.
In May, a 25-year-old Philadelphia man was found dead after meeting up with a man he met on Grindr.
