A Treasury Department committee has begun investigating a Chinese firm’s acquisition of gay dating app Grindr over national security concerns as company employees fear for the security of users’ private data, including HIV status.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which oversees foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies, opened an investigation into the deal last summer over the security of sensitive user data that the app collects, a source told NBC News.
Sources said that employees of the app, based in West Hollywood, Calif., learned of the investigation on July 20, 2018, in a meeting with the app’s executives. Employees said they became concerned after their Chinese parent company proposed the app begin working with Chinese HIV researchers and installed a new executive, Scott Chen, who made changes to communication that made it harder to ensure data security.
Grindr was acquired by Chinese game company Beijing Kunlun Tech in January 2018, which was immediately a point of concern for national security experts and intelligence officials. Those experts and officials said they fear that China could collect potentially embarrassing, sensitive, and harmful data from Grindr’s more than 3 million daily users.
Last week, Reuters reported that Kunlun Tech is trying to sell Grindr.
