Another data breach on a gay app/site? What else is new?
Gay dating site and app Manhunt was compromised due to a hacker, according to TechCrunch. Manhunt recently filed a notice with the Washington attorney general after detecting that a hacker “gained access to a database that stored account credentials for Manhunt users” and “downloaded the usernames, email addresses, and passwords for a subset of our users in early February 2021.”
In response, Manhunt force-reset account passwords in March and alerted users. The company also tweeted, “At this time, all Manhunt users are required to update their password to ensure it meets the updated password requirements.” Despite privately contacting users, the public Twitter account did not disclose the privacy threat.
An attorney for the company later noted that 11% of users were compromised by the hack. Within that, 7,700 Washington state residents were affected.
*Please read carefully**
At this time, all Manhunt users are required to update their password to ensure it meets the updated password requirements. If you are having trouble resetting your password, please follow the provided steps carefully.
– Please try ch…
— MANHUNT (@Manhunt) March 11, 2021
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that Manhunt’s parent company Online-Buddies Inc. has had a data breach. In 2019, Jack’d, a dating app owned by Online-Buddies Inc. that mainly caters to Black and POC users, also experienced a data breach. At the time, tech expert Oliver Hough noticed a gap in the app’s privacy wall that allowed private photos to be viewed online. After contacting Jack’d about the potential threat, he says Jack’d failed to fix the problem. He then reached out to media sources to expose the issue.
The lack of trust that resulted in the data breach led to Online-Buddies Inc. being bought by Perry Street Software, which owns fellow gay dating app Scruff. Though, at the time, Perry Street Software promised a redesign and tech upgrade for the independent app.
“This acquisition will provide Jack’d members with the same combination of technology and active moderation we have developed at Scruff,” said Eric Silverberg, the CEO of Perry Street Software, in a statement, “so that the Jack’d community members will be protected against harassment, spam bots, scammers, and risks while traveling.”
Silverberg then added, “Jack’d members can expect to see the removal of all programmatic advertising, enhanced controls over privacy and security, and new features such as improved messaging, redesigned Match, richer search, and the ability to include video as part of member private albums or in chat.”
It seems Perry Street Software, Online Buddies Inc., and many other gay dating apps have yet to learn their lesson.
Source: TechCrunch,
