Grindr was sold by the Chinese owner after the US had raised security concerns

LGBTQ dating app Grindr has been sold by its Chinese owners, reports the Financial times and Reuters. The sale comes after a US government commission worried about Beijing Kunlun Tech’s national security ownership of the app last year. Kunlun now sells Grindr to San Vicente Acquisition for around $ 608.5 million.

Kunlun originally bought Grindr in 2018, but the Foreign Investments Committee in the United States (CFIUS) reportedly informed Kunlun that its ownership of Grindr was a national security risk, according to a March 2019 Reuters report. Kunlun did not submit its acquisition of Grindr for review by CFIUS, which may be the reason why the committee made the rare request to reverse an already completed acquisition, Reuters.

Kunlun had a June 2020 deadline to sell Grindr. CFIUS has blessed the sale to San Vicente Acquisition, reports the FT.

During Reuters“March 2019 report, it was unclear what the specific concerns of CFIUS were, but the FT says the committee to worry that the Chinese government could use personal information from the app to blackmail US citizens, including US government officials. And lately the US app developers have been investigating more heavily on how they handle personal information. CFIUS blocked acquisitions from MoneyGram and AppLovin by Chinese companies in the past due to security issues.

Grindr’s data processing practices have also been questioned by other groups in recent years. In January, a Norwegian non-profit organization filed three complaints about the Grindr Android app sharing personal information with advertising companies in violation of the AVG. In April 2018, another Norwegian non-profit organization discovered that Grindr shared the HIV status of its users with two external companies, a practice that Grindr has since stopped.