Grindr questioned by US Congress

Gay hook-up app Grindr has been asked to respond to questions about security vulnerabilities by the US.

Two members of Congress wrote to Grindr chief executive Joel Simkhai after Fairfax Media revealed in January that a Sydney man was able to hack into the app.

They asked what steps Grindr took “to protect the privacy and security” of users’ information. He has until March 8 to respond.

Simkhai told Star Observer in January that he took legal and technological actions to block a site that violated their terms of service.

“This site impacted a small number of primarily Australian Grindr users and it remains shut down. Blendr users were not affected by this,” he said.

“Our users can be assured that Grindr does not retain chat history, credit card information, or addresses – and no such information was ever compromised.”