Chinese property of Grindr poses a risk to national security, says US government

The application of LGBTQ dating, Grindr, was bought last year by a Chinese gaming company called Beijing Kunlun. The US government considers the deal as a risk to national security and is pressuring Kunlun for it to sell, according to a Reuters report.

Kunlun acquired the California-based Grindr application in full last January for an estimated $ 152 million after buying an initial $ 93 million stake in 2016, TechCrunch reported. However, none of these transactions have been approved by the Foreign Investment Committee (CFIUS), according to Reuters.

CFIUS told Kunlun that its ownership of Grindr is tantamount to a risk to US national security, the report adds. CFIUS did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment. Grindr declined to comment.

The specific manner in which the Kunlun property constitutes a threat to national security has not been explained in the report. However, Grindr said last year that it had 3.8 million daily users of "every country in the world", probably excluding countries in which it was banned, and 27 million users in total. The data of these users could be considered as a honeymoon for unsavory actors.

Following its sale in Kunlun last year, Grindr issued a public statement warning users' mistrust of new owners of the application. "Nothing changes as to how we will protect your personal information," the company said.

The reported movement follows the Systematic blockage of Huawei by the United States similar national security companies. Huawei is best known for its dazzling phonesbut it's also in the telecommunications sector. The United States is concerned that if Huawei were to implement an Internet infrastructure in the United States, it could deliberately create security loopholes that the Chinese government could potentially take advantage of.