“Or, in less-dense places, that you are within the county borders, but not the exact farm.”īut eventually, after an exchange, a gay traveler may choose to reveal his actual location, which, in certain places, is potentially risky. Scruff employs location obfuscation that is a function of density though, so “someone will be able to deduce that you are in a city or region (such as Mid-Manhattan), but not your exact location (such as the corner of 42nd and 5th Ave),” Mr. Users do have the option to hide distance, as they do in Grindr, but will still appear in another user’s “nearby” grid, which shows people who are close. Grindr sent a similar alert to users last fall, based on similar stories coming out of Egypt. Silverberg said, Scruff sent out a one-time in-app alert, notifying members in that area about what they had heard, and cautioning them to be careful. Scruff has used a similar alert before, in the case of the report last year from the user in Saudi Arabia.
(He said Scruff users overall number around eight million.) In fact, more than 100,000 users with Scruff accounts that are registered in the United States, Britain or Australia were traveling in places where homosexuality is illegal over a recent 30-day period, according to a study Mr. The app’s users do not always avoid hostile regions.
