6 ms·

Surprised Match hadn’t bought Grindr long ago.

vichu 7y ago
Fun fact: Grindr majority stake is owned by a Chinese mobile game company and has been ordered by the US Government to divest as it poses a national security risk.
- lanrh1836 7y ago
  Isn’t that the whole story behind the linked article?
- ssnistfajen 7y ago
  Yeah, US national security risks such as not being able to teach government & military personnel the very basics of how to pre-emptively avoid being blackmailed. If such personnel willingly uploads compromising photos of themselves online, then it's their own fault, not the platform or the platform owner's.
  - ryanmercer 7y ago
    It's less sexually compromising photos and more "Mr. Smith that works for government/corporate office of company, we have chats of you trying to solicit other men, tut tut, what ever will your wife and daughter think, we don't have to tell them but you'll have to do something for us in return". This is literally the kind of stuff that agencies like the Defense Security Service looks for when investigating people to issue security clearance, in the case of DSS for stuff under the Department of Defense umbrella. It's just one way you can be exploited. Similarly, I have a bankruptcy, that makes it difficult for me to ever have a security clearance again, especially anything greater than Confidential. My poor credit choices make me a 'security risk' because I might amass debt again and be easily influenced eyeroll.
    - ssnistfajen 7y ago
      Are government/military personnel somehow entitled to being able to cheat and solicit casual sex? If someone does that while possessing top security clearance or sensitive info, they have clearly demonstrated themselves as vulnerable to exploitation. This is first and foremost an internal personnel problem. If such behaviour happens on U.S.-owned platforms it is still problematic.
      - ryanmercer 7y ago
        Sex, debts and gambling are THE go to blackmail avenues for recruiting assets. It needn't be someone cheating either, being gay is still not socially acceptable in MANY circles remove wife/daughter from the above and change it to pastor, co-worker, employer, mother, father. It doesn't have to be just the fact that the individual is gay or bi either, a listed kink could be used to coerce someone into a mildly compromising situation to maintain their privacy, then once you get them to do something compromising with their employer you now have even more leverage "oh well we could tell them you did this for us, so you'd better keep co-operating". This is also used in television, an example being I believe season 2 of Madam Secretary with the gay Russian student at the war college and the FBI secretary in The Americans is compromised through a vanilla heterosexual relationship. It's also used in non-espionage/corporate sabotage stages, like sextortion with both adults and minors by ether coercing someone into doing sexual things on camera or hacking a webcam/hiding a camera and catching them doing something sexual (or just naked) and using it as leverage against them. This is a fairly competent wiki article with the TL:DR being >There have been various attempts to explain why people become spies. One common theory is summed up by the acronym MICE: Money, Ideology, Compromise or Extortion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_spying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_spying Compromise or Extortion being the important parts as far as Grindr is concerned.
        ssnistfajen 7y ago
        Grindr is just one tool in a long list of possible extortion opportunities. And no, a gay pastor being blackmailed is nowhere near a "national security risk". This should strictly concern people who work for the U.S. government, intelligence, and military agencies. None of the security concerns you mentioned will be solved if Grindr is placed under "trusted" ownership. Having a Grindr profile is a choice, not an entitlement or obligation. This is being framed as a national security issue 3 years after Kunlun Tech acquires majority stake in Grindr and 18 months after it fully bought out Grindr, because hate-fearing all things (and people) Chinese is too in vogue in the U.S. right now to not join on the bandwagon.
Animats 7y ago
Yes, IAC's Match Group (Tinder, Match, PlentyOfFish, OKCupid...) seems to be where these things end up. IAC is the huge Internet company that gets little attention. They have over a hundred major web sites, which they run successfully, but don't try to make into one giant brand. Publishing an advocacy magazine, with a paid editorial staff, was strange for a for-profit company. The article's main criticism of the new management seems to be that they focused on the core business of the company.
- andygcook 7y ago
  Agreed that IAC is an under-the-radar Internet behemoth. The Masters of Scale episode with Barry Diller, the founder of IAC, is worth listening to if you haven’t yet: https://mastersofscale.com/learn-to-unlearn/ https://mastersofscale.com/learn-to-unlearn/
cududa 7y ago
They were bought by a Chinese bank. I don’t understand how that was allowed to happen in the first place... The security implications are mind boggling
- deleted 7y ago
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- deleted 7y ago
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Fun fact: Grindr majority stake is owned by a Chinese mobile game company and has been ordered by the US Government to divest as it poses a national security risk.

lanrh1836 7y ago
Isn’t that the whole story behind the linked article?
ssnistfajen 7y ago
Yeah, US national security risks such as not being able to teach government & military personnel the very basics of how to pre-emptively avoid being blackmailed. If such personnel willingly uploads compromising photos of themselves online, then it's their own fault, not the platform or the platform owner's.
- ryanmercer 7y ago
  It's less sexually compromising photos and more "Mr. Smith that works for government/corporate office of company, we have chats of you trying to solicit other men, tut tut, what ever will your wife and daughter think, we don't have to tell them but you'll have to do something for us in return". This is literally the kind of stuff that agencies like the Defense Security Service looks for when investigating people to issue security clearance, in the case of DSS for stuff under the Department of Defense umbrella. It's just one way you can be exploited. Similarly, I have a bankruptcy, that makes it difficult for me to ever have a security clearance again, especially anything greater than Confidential. My poor credit choices make me a 'security risk' because I might amass debt again and be easily influenced eyeroll.
  - ssnistfajen 7y ago
    Are government/military personnel somehow entitled to being able to cheat and solicit casual sex? If someone does that while possessing top security clearance or sensitive info, they have clearly demonstrated themselves as vulnerable to exploitation. This is first and foremost an internal personnel problem. If such behaviour happens on U.S.-owned platforms it is still problematic.
    - ryanmercer 7y ago
      Sex, debts and gambling are THE go to blackmail avenues for recruiting assets. It needn't be someone cheating either, being gay is still not socially acceptable in MANY circles remove wife/daughter from the above and change it to pastor, co-worker, employer, mother, father. It doesn't have to be just the fact that the individual is gay or bi either, a listed kink could be used to coerce someone into a mildly compromising situation to maintain their privacy, then once you get them to do something compromising with their employer you now have even more leverage "oh well we could tell them you did this for us, so you'd better keep co-operating". This is also used in television, an example being I believe season 2 of Madam Secretary with the gay Russian student at the war college and the FBI secretary in The Americans is compromised through a vanilla heterosexual relationship. It's also used in non-espionage/corporate sabotage stages, like sextortion with both adults and minors by ether coercing someone into doing sexual things on camera or hacking a webcam/hiding a camera and catching them doing something sexual (or just naked) and using it as leverage against them. This is a fairly competent wiki article with the TL:DR being >There have been various attempts to explain why people become spies. One common theory is summed up by the acronym MICE: Money, Ideology, Compromise or Extortion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_spying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_spying Compromise or Extortion being the important parts as far as Grindr is concerned.
      - ssnistfajen 7y ago
        Grindr is just one tool in a long list of possible extortion opportunities. And no, a gay pastor being blackmailed is nowhere near a "national security risk". This should strictly concern people who work for the U.S. government, intelligence, and military agencies. None of the security concerns you mentioned will be solved if Grindr is placed under "trusted" ownership. Having a Grindr profile is a choice, not an entitlement or obligation. This is being framed as a national security issue 3 years after Kunlun Tech acquires majority stake in Grindr and 18 months after it fully bought out Grindr, because hate-fearing all things (and people) Chinese is too in vogue in the U.S. right now to not join on the bandwagon.

Animats 7y ago

Yes, IAC's Match Group (Tinder, Match, PlentyOfFish, OKCupid...) seems to be where these things end up. IAC is the huge Internet company that gets little attention. They have over a hundred major web sites, which they run successfully, but don't try to make into one giant brand. Publishing an advocacy magazine, with a paid editorial staff, was strange for a for-profit company. The article's main criticism of the new management seems to be that they focused on the core business of the company.

andygcook 7y ago
Agreed that IAC is an under-the-radar Internet behemoth. The Masters of Scale episode with Barry Diller, the founder of IAC, is worth listening to if you haven’t yet: https://mastersofscale.com/learn-to-unlearn/ https://mastersofscale.com/learn-to-unlearn/

cududa 7y ago

They were bought by a Chinese bank. I don’t understand how that was allowed to happen in the first place... The security implications are mind boggling

deleted 7y ago
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