Selling data on your users sounds like a pretty average move for tech startups though, the connection to "they did it because China discriminates against LGBT" is pretty far-fetched, especially since they still had a minority position when that was happening.
I expect they would've done the same if it had been a SF company that would've bought 60% of it in 2016.
>... "they did it because China discriminates against LGBT" is pretty far-fetched ...
I agree; that's not what I was trying to say, and I'm sure the primary motivator was money.
You're correct, other dating apps did and still do sell data. [0]
The point I was trying to make is that American consumers are already regarded as barely human from a privacy perspective by our own corporations. It gets worse from there (TikTok), and when you add a certain country's poor LGBTQ human rights record, it's just icing on the cake. By that point they really don't care.
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Match Group, for all their evil, currently states:
Match Group does not sell the personal information of our users to any third party. [1]
Then in the next paragraph:
In particular, we do NOT use sensitive data, such as sexual orientation, racial or ethnic origins, religion, or precise geolocation data for advertising. [1]
I like the "precise" part. Sounds like selling personal information to me, but I'm not a lawyer.
I expect they would've done the same if it had been a SF company that would've bought 60% of it in 2016.