Grindr disables location services in Olympic Village to protect LGBTQ athletes
Grindr rolled out a number of enhanced privacy protections within the Olympic Village in Paris to protect LGBTQ athletes using the popular gay dating app.
Grindr rolled out a number of enhanced privacy protections within the Olympic Village in Paris to protect LGBTQ athletes using the popular gay dating app.
Earlier this week, some Grindr users shared on social media that the app appeared to be blocked in the Olympic Village, because they couldn’t use the “explore” function, which allows users to search for and view profiles in a specific location.
Then, on Wednesday, Grindr confirmed that it disabled the app’s location-based features, which it also did at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, and rolled out a number of other enhanced privacy measures.
“If an athlete is not out or comes from a country where being LGBTQ+ is dangerous or illegal, using Grindr can put them at risk of being outed by curious individuals who may try to identify and expose them on the app,” Grindr said in a blog post.
At least 67 countries have national laws criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults, according to Human Rights Watch.
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