Dark Side Of Grindr
Do you really know who you are talking to on Grindr? How safe is the app for its users? Last week a Brisbane court heard of a terrifying attack that saw a man chained up and 鈥榖rutally鈥� raped by another man, after they met on the gay dating app in April, 2019.
The offender,听Ian Robert Madden,听stood trial on eight charges including three counts of rape. Madden was acquitted on five offences but found guilty of one count of rape, common assault and deprivation of liberty. This ruling means听Madden will serve six years and six months imprisonment.
In evidence submitted to the court it was revealed that the victim met Madden on Grindr and both had agreed to meet at the perpetrator鈥檚 house for oral sex. However, the encounter took a menacing turn when Madden proceeded to bind the victim鈥檚 wrists with chains before anally raping the victim, all while wearing a batman mask. Madden, who knew he was HIV positive, took no precautions and did not use a condom when he 鈥渂rutally鈥� raped his victim.
District Court judge Richard Jones took into account submissions that Madden would have a more difficult time in prison due to his sexuality, mental health issues and the coronavirus related restrictions. However, Jones refused to accept submissions that the rape was not premeditated.
鈥淭he anal rape occurred after violence and included the binding of the complainant,鈥� Jones said.听鈥淚t may well be when he arrived you may not have intended to do what you finally did do but there can be little doubt this rape was not a spontaneous action of the moment.鈥�
Jones also said that forcing the victim to 鈥渞elive that night鈥� by giving evidence at the trial reflected a 鈥渓ack of remorse鈥� from Madden.
听Of course, this is not the first story to emerge of how use of the Grindr app has led to brutal and even fatal outcomes. In February of this year听three 17-year-old boys were charged with murder following the death of a 56-year-old听Canberran man on the New South Wales South Coast.
It was revealed that victim Peter Keeley had been communicating with one of the three听teenagers through the dating app. An autopsy found he had suffered severe head and facial injuries, though the findings were inconclusive.
“One of the lines of inquiry was the method of communication used by the victim鈥� there were a number of dating apps that were used, and one of those apps was Grindr, that appears to be the method of communication that links him to one of the teenagers,”听said Superintendent Doherty who听was tasked with leading Keeley鈥檚 murder investigation.
However, and perhaps more worrying than these physical yet relatively isolated attacks is that the company behind Grindr were recently in the spotlight for a security flaw which made it incredibly easy for personal accounts to be hacked. 听
The flaw in the security systems was originally uncovered by French security researcher Wassime Bouimadaghene听in September. However,听when听Bouimadaghene informed the 听the company of the vulnerability he received no response.
听In short, just by knowing the email address a user had associated with their Grindr account a hacker could easily create their own clickable password reset link using the leaked token and hijack the account and thus instantly gaining access to a user’s messages, pictures, HIV status, and more – therefor听placing Grindr鈥檚 three听million daily active users at risk.
In 2018 an revealed that Grindr was sharing with two separate companies some of the information that Grindr users choose to include in their profiles, including their HIV status and last tested date.
Eventually responding to these latest concerns, the company鈥檚 chief operating officer Rick Marini provided the following statement to TechCrunch.
鈥淲e are grateful for the researcher who identified a vulnerability. The reported issue has been fixed. Thankfully, we believe we addressed the issue before it was exploited by any malicious parties. As part of our commitment to improving the safety and security of our service, we are partnering with a leading security firm to simplify and improve the ability for security researchers to report issues such as these. In addition, we will soon announce a new bug bounty program to provide additional incentives for researchers to assist us in keeping our service secure going forward.鈥�
When will people learn? How ofren have we been told of staliking, grooming, abuse etc. on those most anti-social and ill-named “social media” sites?
If You agree to meet someone for a specified sexual activity, in this case “Oral Sex” – why would you agree to, or allow yourself to be tied up? Surely commonsense would ring alarm bells as loud a London’s Big Ben? Did the rapist tell his victim he was HIV+?
If this, and other reported incidents on Grindr does not tell people to avoid getting involved with these sites then nothing will and in some ways they have only themselves to blame if thing don’t go the way they were hoping.
Harsh? Hard? Yes, but come on people! We are adults with brains so bloody well use them.