grinder will disable location features and deploy additional privacy protections for users staying in the Olympic Village during the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
The company announced that it will strengthen its security measures. blogsaid the change is aimed at protecting LGBTQ athletes, especially those from countries where homosexuality is criminalized or punishable by the death penalty, from what it called a “real safety risk.”
“Grindr shows users who is nearby and how far away they are,” the blog post says. “In most situations this is useful. In the Olympic Village, where thousands of athletes are crammed into a small area, the same feature can be a drawback.
“Someone outside of the Village could view a profile in the Village. Distance data can be used to determine someone’s exact location. And just appearing on Grindr can tell the world something about a person’s identity, which is still a criminal offense in more than 60 countries.”
gay dating apps First, we restricted location information during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and we did the same for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. The 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics will be the third cycle in which these protections have been implemented.
Grindr’s enhanced privacy features for competitions allow athletes, coaches, trainers, and other staff to remain anonymous and use the app discreetly without being forced to reveal themselves.
For example, Grindr’s “Explore” and “Roaming” features, which allow users to view profiles in nearby locations, will be disabled within the Olympic Village during the Games, preventing those outside the Village from seeing users within the Village.
In addition, the “Show Distance” feature that displays a user’s distance is automatically turned off by default for all users within the Olympic Village, so if a user wants to share their approximate distance, they must actively turn it on.
During the Olympics, users in the Olympic Village will have access to features that would normally be behind a paywall, such as messages that are deleted after being read. Users can also unsend messages from both sides of a conversation and enable screenshot blocking to prevent others from capturing profile photos, chats, and images.
The private video feature, which allows for one-time viewing, will be completely disabled within the Olympic Village. Users can also report recent chats up to 24 hours after the chat ends. Your name and photo will be hidden during the reporting process.
The company announced it will send weekly reminders to users within the Olympic Village about specific risks and provide links to multilingual safety and privacy guides. Users in the Village will only see messages from Grindr for Equality that focus on health and safety, not third-party ads.
Enhanced privacy and security features will be enabled in conjunction with the opening of the Olympic Village. The tournament will be held from February 6th to February 22nd.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
