Grindr on the Paris Olympics: Defending LGBTQ+ athletes’ privateness and security – Cyber Tech

In case you one way or the other have not heard, the Olympics are in Paris this yr, and it looks as if everybody’s utilizing the video games to stage up their relationship sport and hopefully discover a new (athletic) associate within the metropolis of affection.

Tinder’s launched an advert marketing campaign for the Olympics, encouraging customers to “join with professional athletes” by way of the Passport Mode characteristic. Apparently, the phrases “Olympian” and “athlete” have seen a big improve in mentions on the app too.

However Grindr’s taking a unique method: As a substitute of selling hookups with athletes, Grindr’s specializing in making a protected digital house for LGBTQ+ athletes, particularly these from nations the place their id may put them in danger. This is not new for Grindr both; they carried out related security measures through the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

For customers inside the Olympic Village, Grindr is disabling location-based options like “Discover” and “Roam,” and making the “present distance” characteristic opt-in. The corporate has additionally carried out safeguards like blocking screenshots to forestall unintentional outings.

Different privateness controls embody the power to ship limitless disappearing messages and unsend messages after they have been despatched (even free of charge customers). Grindr’s additionally disabling personal movies inside the Olympic Village and sending out weekly reminders about potential dangers, simply to maintain everybody protected and knowledgeable.

The app additionally famous that the one adverts that may seem on Grindr inside the village might be from Grindr for Equality, which promotes well being and security sources.

“You will not see third-party ads — solely Grindr for Equality public service bulletins to assist hold customers knowledgeable and protected,” Grindr introduced.

It is unlucky that we’d even want a lot of these security measures, however the actuality is that in some elements of the world, LGBTQ+ people nonetheless face extreme discrimination, persecution, and even the specter of violence. Hopefully, with Grindr taking these proactive steps, LGBTQ+ athletes can join with out worry of being outed or focused.