The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is reportedly forcing Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. Ltd. (“Kunlun”) to divest Grindr LLC (“Grindr”), the dating app Kunlun acquired in 2016. Much of the popular press is focusing on the seemingly remote connection between a popular dating platform for gay, bi, trans, and queer people on the one hand, and the national security of the United States on the other. The circumstances, however, highlight perfectly one of the U.S. government’s keenest national security concerns: the ability of foreign governments, and in particular the Chinese government, to collect and potentially exploit data related to U.S. citizens.
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