Norwegian research raises questions about whether specific ways of sharing of information violate information privacy legislation in European countries and also the usa.

By Natasha Singer and Aaron Krolik

Popular online dating services like Grindr, OkCupid and Tinder are distributing individual information like dating alternatives and location that is precise advertising and marketing businesses with techniques which will violate privacy legislation, in accordance with a brand new report that analyzed a number of the world’s most installed Android os apps.

Grindr, the world’s many popular dating that is gay, sent user-tracking codes and the app’s name to more than a dozen businesses, basically tagging people with their intimate orientation, based on the report, that has been released Tuesday by the Norwegian customer Council, a government-funded nonprofit company in Oslo.

Grindr additionally delivered a user’s location to companies that are multiple that might then share that data with several other organizations, the report stated. If the New York instances tested Grindr’s Android os application, it shared exact latitude and longitude information with five companies.

The scientists additionally stated that the OkCupid application sent a user’s ethnicity and responses to individual profile questions — like “Have you utilized psychedelic drugs? ” — to a company that can help businesses tailor promoting messages to users. The occasions unearthed that the site that is okCupid recently published a listing of a lot more than 300 marketing analytics “partners” with which it could share users’ information.