Tag Archives: hook-up sites

Law & Crime reports: A 53-year-old Michigan man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for murdering, dismembering, and eating the severed genitalia of a 25-year-old man he met on the Grindr dating app. Shiawassee County Circuit Judge Matthew J. Stewart on Thursday ordered Mark David Latunski to serve a sentence of life in prison without the possibility …

Michigan Live reports: A Shiawassee County judge has found Mark David Latunski, the man who previously admitted to killing and dismembering 25-year-old Kevin Bacon of Swartz Creek, guilty of first-degree murder. The ruling came following a day and a half of testimony in a rare degree hearing in which Judge Matthew J. Stewart was tasked with determining whether Latunski was …

Courthouse News reports: A class of romance seekers sued Meet Muse Media, the owner of “not your parents dating app” Snack, accusing the company of age discrimination because it won’t allow singles older than 35 to sign up. A 37-year-old California man sued the Canadian company Friday in San Diego federal court claiming Snack violates the California Unruh Civil Rights …

Axios reports: Grindr is partnering with Spectrum Labs, tapping the startup’s AI-based system to help filter postings on the LGBTQ dating service. For years, Grindr has chosen not to implement an AI system for content moderation, not because it didn’t want to augment its keyword-based filtering system, but because it was concerned that the models weren’t sensitive enough to keep …

Bloomberg News reports: Grindr LLC, the dating app that specializes in connections for the LGBTQ+ community, has agreed to go public through a blank-check firm in a deal that values the combined company at $2.1 billion including debt. The predominantly male dating app is merging with Tiga Acquistion Corp., which debuted in November 2020. The special purpose acquisition company isn’t …

Engadget reports: Grindr’s past willingness to share sensitive data may have been more problematic than previously thought. The Wall Street Journal understands precise Grindr user location data was collected from the online ad network MoPub (once owned by Twitter) and put on sale through its partner company UberMedia (now UM) since “at least” 2017. The LGBTQ dating app curbed the …

Tampa’s ABC News affiliate reports: The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said its undercover detectives have been using dating apps to track down a number of people suspected of buying and selling drugs in the area. A 6-month undercover sting, called “Swipe Left for Meth,” yielded more than 60 arrests, the agency said. Detectives also obtained warrants for eight people. The …

The Associated Press reports: Norway’s data privacy watchdog on Wednesday fined gay dating app Grindr 65 million kroner ($7.16 million) for sending sensitive personal data to hundreds of potential advertising partners without users’ consent — a breach of strict European Union privacy rules. The Norwegian Data Protection Authority said it imposed its highest fine to date because the California-based company …

From the Department of Justice: An Oregon man has been charged with a federal hate crime after using the internet to target and brutally assault a gay man because of his sexual orientation. Daniel Andrew McGee, of Springfield, has been charged by criminal complaint with a hate crime. The complaint alleges that McGee attempted to kill the victim. According to …

From the Department of Justice: Daniel Jenkins, 22, of Dallas was sentenced today for committing violent crimes as part of a conspiracy to target users of the dating app Grindr. Jenkins was sentenced to a federal prison term of 280 months for his involvement in the scheme to target gay men for violent crimes. He is the last of four …

Via press release from the Justice Department: A Texas man pleaded guilty yesterday to federal hate crime charges in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. According to court documents, Daniel Jenkins, 22, of Dallas, pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal hate crime and two other charges in connection with his involvement in a scheme to target …

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports: Authorities are warning members of Atlanta’s LGBT community to remain cautious following a string of robberies that began as conversations on the popular gay dating app Grindr. Investigators said several men have been robbed in recent months and believe there may be additional victims who have not come forward. “From February to May, we have …

The Verge reports: Facebook is testing a video speed-dating app called Sparked. The app, which requires a Facebook profile to create an account, is developed by the company’s NPE Team, Facebook’s in-house group that works on experimental apps. You can view the Sparked webpage here, where it describes the app as “video dating with kind people.” It also promises no …

Via press release from the Justice Department: A Louisiana man was indicted and charged today in federal court in the Western District of Louisiana on six counts, including hate crime, kidnapping, firearm and obstruction charges. Chance Seneca, 19, of Lafayette, was charged by a federal grand jury on March 18 based on his attempted murder of a gay man and …

The Verge reports: Tinder and other Match Group-owned apps are going to let their users run background checks on possible dates. The company announced an investment in Garbo, a nonprofit that looks to allow people to run background checks with only their first name and phone number or full name. The investment, of which Match didn’t disclose the amount, will …

The New York Daily News reports: A U.K. couple has been found guilty of killing an Irish man by poisoning him with a powerful drug known as “devil’s breath.” Joel Osei, 25, and Diana Cristea, 19, were arrested after the body of Adrian Murphy, a 43-year-old champion dancer, was found in his South London apartment in June 2019. Investigators say …

The Guardian reports: A teenager who lured a “gentle, kind-hearted” sales assistant to a remote beauty spot on a date and stabbed him to death has been locked up for a minimum of 24 years. Alex Davies, 18, was murdered in Parbold, Lancashire, by Brian Healless, also 18, after they agreed a rendezvous through the dating app Grindr. Healless, from …

Reuters reports: Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd said on Friday that it has agreed to sell Grindr LLC, a popular gay dating app it acquired in 2016, for about $608.5 million. The deal comes after a U.S. government panel set a June 2020 deadline to sell the app. The panel, dubbed the Committee on Foreign Investment in …

The Guardian reports: A woman has been jailed for posing as a man on a gay dating app and sharing sexual photos and videos of a man she met online during a “disturbing campaign of harassment”. Yannick Glaudin, 31, stalked the man and his then boyfriend, sending their families, friends and colleagues the intimate pictures and films using a number …

The New York Daily News reports: The babyfaced killer from Oklahoma who murdered an Upper East Side man 40 years his senior — after meeting him on a dating app — used a knife or a sharp ceramic object to mutilate his victim’s head, a Manhattan prosecutor alleged at his arraignment early Saturday. The suspect, 24-year-old Alex Scott, had met …