The Chinese company Kunlun is forced by the US government to sell the LGBTQ + dating app. He sees it as a major risk to national security.
The Kunlun group will have to separate from Grindr . Owner since 2016 of the very popular dating app for gays, bis, trans and queers, she must now resell it under pressure from the US government.
Kunlun loses the most popular LGBTQ + dating app
It is the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States ( CFIUS ), made up of a dozen federal agencies, which is forcing Kunlun's hand. This organization's mission is to examine the acquisitions of American companies by foreign powers.
US worries about personal data management in the middle of economic conflict with China
According to Reuters , the CFIUS informed the owner of Grindr that his takeover constituted a risk to national security and the Chinese group has no choice but to sell its shares. As permitted by law, the CFIUS gave no reason to justify its decision.The United States, in the middle of a trade war with China, would be particularly attentive to the collection and use of data made by these applications, which would explain its decision. The committee has already blocked the acquisition by Chinese companies of US money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc. and mobile marketing company AppLovin.
The Trump government is particularly concerned about the obligation imposed by a law of 2017 to certain services to store some of the data of users on Chinese servers.
Grindr had already been pinned on this specific subject. In April 2018, the application was accused of sharing, without encryption , the personal data of its users, including their HIV status. Grindr had changed his practices immediately after this discovery.