Special: Behind Grindr’s destined hookup in Asia, a facts misstep and scramble to produce up

By Echo Wang , Carl Oa€™Donnell

(Reuters) – Early last year, Grindr LLCa€™s Chinese holder provided some Beijing-based designers the means to access personal data of millions of People in the us such exclusive messages and HIV condition, according to eight former workers, prompting U.S. officials to inquire about it to offer the matchmaking app your gay people.

After having complete command over Grindr in January 2018, Beijing Kunlun technology Co Ltd stepped up administration variations and consolidated operations to cut costs and broaden procedures in Asia, one previous worker familiar with your choice mentioned.

In the process, many providersa€™s engineers in Beijing have usage of the Grindr database for a lot of period, eight former workers stated.

While it is known that facts confidentiality issues encouraged the crackdown on Kunlun, interviews with over several supply with understanding of Grindra€™s procedures, including the previous workforce, the very first time reveal what the business actually performed to-draw U.S. ire and how after that it attempted to cut their bargain.

Reuters discovered no facts the appa€™s database is misused. However, the choice to give their engineers in Beijing usage of Grindra€™s databases proved to be a misstep for Kunlun, one of the biggest Chinese mobile gaming agencies.

In early 2018, the Committee on international expense in the usa (CFIUS), a federal government screen that scrutinizes foreign acquisitions of U.S. Continue Reading