Grindr is tightening privacy controls at the Olympic Village in Beijing. The gay dating app is preventing people outside the Olympic Village from using the location-based Explore feature to find athletes in or near the area. The move is meant to protect athletes from harassment or persecution so they can “feel safe” connecting with each other during the Winter Olympics..
Anyone using Grindr inside the Olympic Village will see a pop-up telling them that people outside the area can’t take a look at the venue using Explore. “Your privacy is important to us,” Grindr says in the alert. This is the first time Grindr has provided such a notice.
Previously, Grindr users anywhere could find Olympians through Explore. This measure created a serious problem for athletes from countries that criminalize the LGBTQ community or have strong cultural biases against it. The problem is more than hypothetical: Insider notes that TikTok and Twitter users found numerous dating profiles of athletes during the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.