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Grindr Admits It Shared HIV Status Of Users
The same-sex dating app Grindr responded Monday to revelations that it allowed third parties to view the HIV status of users, saying its customers had the option not to supply sensitive information. Grindr acknowledged that information on users' HIV status, including the date they were last tested for the virus, was shared with two companies – Apptimize and Localytics, who were paid to monitor and analyze how the app was being used.
News that the app was sharing the data first appeared in a story by Buzzfeed on Monday. Buzzfeed wrote: "Because the HIV information is sent together with users' GPS data, phone ID, and email, it could identify specific users and their HIV status, according to Antoine Pultier, a researcher at the Norwegian nonprofit SINTEF, which first identified the issue."
In a point-by-point response on its Tumblr page, Grindr said: "It's important to remember that Grindr is a public forum. We give users the option to post information about themselves including HIV status and last test date, and we make it clear in our privacy policy that if you choose to include this information in your profile, the information will also become public." Grindr also said that the information was encrypted and that the company "has never, nor will we ever sell personally identifiable user information – especially information regarding HIV status or last test date – to third parties or advertisers."
San Francisco's ABC7 spoke to Alec Nygard, a user of the app, who said it allows the option of posting "negative," "negative on PrEp," "positive," or "positive-undetected status."
Also at CNN, The Guardian, Bloomberg, and TechCrunch.
Related: Health Insurer Aetna Accidentally Exposes Customers' HIV Statuses With Transparent Envelope Windows
(Score: 4, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday April 03 2018, @09:30PM (5 children)
While I think you may have an element of truth, such assumptions are akin to "Mac's don't get viruses". Sleep around, either partner, your risk of getting an STD increases. Period.
Gorgos and Marazzo (2011) [oup.com] may have been the study you were seeking which reports higher chlamydia rates and lower HSV prevalence for lesbians rather than bisexual or heterosexuals. It was not non-zero, however, and the rate wasn't all that much lower. It also reported a possible increased rate of bacterial vaginosis. Quoting from that study, "WSW are at risk of acquiring bacterial, viral, and protozoal STIs from both female and male partners. WSW should not be presumed to be at low or no risk for STIs based on stated sexual orientation. Effective screening requires a comprehensive and open discussion of sexual and behavioral risks, beyond sexual identity, between health care providers and their female clients."
The anecdotal, "men are hornier so are at increased risk," is tempting but far from universally applicable. You can find all levels of sex drive in both men and women. More in males? Maybe, but I'd want the quantitative evidence first. And that's all I have to say about that.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday April 03 2018, @09:55PM (4 children)
All fair points, but please keep in mind "WSW" is not the same as "hardcore, gayer than Ellen, gold star lesbian." I will bet good money a lot of STDs in the "WSW" community came from bisexual women, who themselves got it from men who slept with Artemis-alone-knows-who.
The solution is the same for all people of all sexes and orientations: know your STD status, get any prospective partners tested too, don't sleep around. I've only ever had two lovers, and if my ex hadn't turned out to be nuttier than a squirrel-and-peanut-butter-banana milkshake, that number would only be one. It baffles me how many people seem to love sleeping around and how much.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday April 04 2018, @02:17AM (1 child)
People vary enormously in this regard, and I rather doubt that there's a significant level of actual understanding commonly linking the various extremes. Nor, I think, does there need to be, at least beyond "live and let live."
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 04 2018, @02:37AM
Some peoples' behavior is a public health risk. I don't know what to do about it that wouldn't make the situation worse; raising their insurance premiums, for example, would just make them LESS likely to get treated and spread diseases more. And it's somewhere between creepy and outright Orwellian to inquire into peoples' sexual history re: number of partners in just about any circumstance I can think of.
So yes, live and let live, but when someone else's "live" makes it harder for others to "live," we have a problem :(
Also, it's not that I don't want sex, I just don't want it with anyone but my girlfriend. I've actually got a weirdly high libido for a woman.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday April 04 2018, @12:50PM (1 child)
Noted. And the study I cited does show that bisexual female transmission rates appear (likely are indeed) higher - didn't want to say you weren't on to something. I read somewhere (sorry no cite) that one notion is that the proteins of seminal fluid are superior to vaginal secretions as a pathogenic carrier medium (a not terribly distinguishing feature of male 'superiority').
On the purely anecdotal level with nothing but talking-out-my-own-ass for authority, I remember being exposed to the idea that if sexual drive's prime mover is propagation of the species men ought to have the desire to see their gametes placed as many times and locations as possible while women are biologically limited to having one gamete in development at any one time. The physiology of human reproduction thus encourages male promiscuity constantly while women are less so motivated. Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] (for whatever that is worth) also seems to state there is a straight female equivalent of when a woman is prepared for ovulation there being a greater level of desire for other men [sagepub.com] (distributive genetics desire maybe?) I also came across something in a TedX talk somewhere that said something like when one has an affair there is a reaction of pleasure based on the notion of change (cf. "seven year itch").
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 04 2018, @07:37PM
Yeah, that all makes perfect evolutionary sense...given how male and female bodies work, it couldn't be otherwise, and before modern society where half your kids died before age 5 and you were lucky to live to 40, any other arrangement would have resulted in extinction :( But the whole point of intelligence and civilization is so we can tell mother nature where to stick it and do better than we'd be able to do naturally, right...? What a mess.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...