Entre taps e direitos: proteção de dados pessoais, privacidade e liberdade no aplicativo Grindr

Abstract

Grindr is an application (app) widely used by men in search of sexual partners because it allows direct contact with users who are located in nearby territories. However, the platform processes a wide range of personal and sensitive data made available by its users, which requires a legal regulation regarding the privacy and protection of individuals' personal data. Therefore, taking the city of Juiz de Fora - MG as a geographical framework, this research deploys an empirical-qualitative methodology, using techniques of profile observation on the network, semi-structured interview with users and documentary analysis of the terms of use of the app, in order to answer the query about what are the meanings of privacy and freedom of users on the network and how these meanings relate to the terms of use of the app and the regulation given by Law 13.709 of 2018, the brazilian General Law of Protection of Personal Data (LGPD). Thus, this research aims to understand the ways in which subjects understand the free and private exercise of sexuality in the app. Hence, it uses the Grounded Theory developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) as a methodology for data analysis. As a result, we rechead a secrecy x autonomy theory, in which users seeking for secrecy understand privacy as a negative freedom, of non-interference in the intimacy and reclusion of homoerotic practices, while other users emphasize autonomy to manage their personal information as a way to achieve privacy and sexual liberty on the app. In addition, the analysis of the app's terms of use has shown irregularities in the data treatment operated by the company when considered the parameters stipulated by LGPD on transparency, purpose, security, data quality, free access, consent, among others. Finally, we propose the use of contributions derived from sexual rights as a way to address more specifically the context of data treatment operated by Grindr, since the company controls a large flow of information about the sexual life of its users. In this way, informative self-determination can be understood alongside the logic of sexual autonomy, with the aim of contributing to the free development of the personality of network’s users and promoting technical measures that ensure the provisions of LGPD and the compliance with the particularities of the context of data treatment of sexual minorities.