Before
the launch of the blurring feature, Jack’d had disabled location
sharing in countries where homosexuality was illegal. The blurring now
allows these men to safely use GPS technology to find nearby men. It
adds a rounding error to the member’s coordinates so that other men are
given a general idea of their whereabouts without pinpointing their
exact location. Even Jack’d’s servers do not know the exact actual
location of members.
There is good reason to count the USA among the unsafe countries for gay men today. According to the LA Times, hate crimes against LGBTQ people in Los Angeles have increased 24.5% since the election. In a story from Bloomberg, published in February, the NYPD cites the election as a major factor in increased anti-LGBTQ incidents in New York City.
Similarly, the Washington Blade
published a story in March on its city’s annual bias-related crime
report. It revealed the number of anti-LGBTQ hate crimes in Washington
DC had increased 59 percent in 2016. And in Boston, the number of
reported hate crimes and bigoted actions against the LGBTQ community
last year surpassed those aimed at Muslims, Jews, Latinos, and Asians
combined. According to the Boston Globe,
Boston Police Department figures indicate that the LGBTQ community is
the top target for hate acts in its city and it is a trend that appears
to be persisting.
“The
world will live in is still not LGBTQ tolerant and with 70% of our
users being young millennials, we have to be proactive in protecting
their privacy,” says Rivel.