Current Events > Catholic church official resigns after phone data used to track him on Grindr

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.inquirer.com/news/nation-world/monsignor-jeffrey-burrill-resigns-grindr-20210720.html

Kinda scary that a news site can just buy your phone data and do this.
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Smashingpmkns posted...

Kinda scary that a news site can just buy your phone data and do this.

I mean it should be assumed at this point that everything you do online is being watched and recorded. Might as well accept it.

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Isn't this an invasion of privacy?

I'd be ready to sue if anyone used something like that against me. Who are they to track his online activities?

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If this stops them from assaulting children I'm all for it. And yeah phone data shouldn't be on sale without permission.

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If you're not the customer, you're the product.

Just kidding. Sites you pay for are selling your data too!

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cuh posted...

Yea, this is honestly terrifying. Wtf?

"Oh no, I dropped a USB stick with a strangely specific timeframe of cellphone logs in your news agency's lobby somehow, when I stopped in for no reason! I hope nobody looks at the data for [phone number] which incidentally belongs to [priest]!"

be a pedophile = flee the country with the support of the Church, escape criminal charges, get reassigned in a new location and continue touching children there

be gay? lmao, get out
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So, why was he being tracked? Grindr is for legal age relationships, right? Also, who gave up his cell phone data and why are people ok with this?

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He probably used a phone that the Church paid for. It was a company phone I bet.

EDIT: Read the article. They just scraped public posts (assuming Grindr has something like that) or they had someone he sent messages to show said messages to a private investigator hired by the Church. Or the Church paid for his phone and somehow saw his data. It's somewhat unclear but basically they had a private investigator dig up everything on this guy. If a snoop starts snooping on you, not much you can do.

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RenescoStCewl posted...

If this stops them from assaulting children I'm all for it.

Not sure what this has to do with the story tbqh. Dude was outed as gay by a religious media group

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He should sue that group for emotional distress and loss of income. That's private data that they abused and weaponized, that should not be allowed.

Get busted on grindr priest = fired

Get busted on tindr priest = relocated

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Robot2600 posted...

Get busted on grindr priest = fired

Get busted on tindr priest = relocated

Yeah, this is crazy. It's probably not legal, either.

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CreekCo posted...

Yeah, this is crazy. It's probably not legal, either.

It's absolutely not.

Robot2600 posted...

He probably used a phone that the Church paid for. It was a company phone I bet.

EDIT: Read the article. They just scraped public posts (assuming Grindr has something like that) or they had someone he sent messages to show said messages to a private investigator hired by the Church. Or the Church paid for his phone and somehow saw his data. It's somewhat unclear but basically they had a private investigator dig up everything on this guy. If a snoop starts snooping on you, not much you can do.

In a Tuesday piece presenting the backstory, the Pillar reported that it had obtained information based on the data Grindr collects from its users, and hired an independent firm to analyze it.

"A mobile device correlated to Burrill emitted app data signals from the location-based hookup app Grindr on a near-daily basis during parts of 2018, 2019, and 2020 - at both his USCCB office and his USCCB-owned residence, as well as during USCCB meetings and events in other cities," the Pillar reported.
"The data obtained and analyzed by The Pillar conveys mobile app date signals during two 26-week periods, the first in 2018 and the second in 2019 and 2020. The data was obtained from a data vendor and authenticated by an independent data consulting firm contracted by The Pillar," the site reported. It did not identify who the vendor was or if the site bought the information or got it from a third party.

Seems more involved than that
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This story is messed up.

LeoRavus posted...

Isn't this an invasion of privacy?

I'd be ready to sue if anyone used something like that against me. Who are they to track his online activities?

When you click "agree", you've essentially sold your info.

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So my understanding is that Grindr collects data from its users to sell to third party vendors, who then sell the data to parties of interest. These party of interest can use it for whatever they deem of use to them. I guess it was time to crack down on closeted gay Catholic officials? A rival in the Archdiocese or something?

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RenescoStCewl posted...

If this stops them from assaulting children I'm all for it.

That's if this was a measure undertaken to expose predatory behavior in the first place. From the looks of things, it's more likely that this church official was targeted by a Catholic publication with the intent of blackmailing him, shaming him or ruining his career and reputation.

It might not be kosher for this guy to fuck around with other guys as a man of the cloth, but I maintain that outing this man - to the point that they hired an independent firm to analyse the information they bought to ensure it was this specific guy they caught - was worse. It wasn't for anyone's wellbeing, if anything it seems like he was outed to protect the sanctity of the church from a homosexual fornicator.

And frankly, if this man was a pedophile and using his status to rape kids, I feel like the church would cover it up and reassign him rather than let him resign in shame. I can't vouch for the reputation of the Catholic publication, but unless they have a track record of denouncing pedophile priests and speaking in opposition to the Vatican's protection of them, I'm not convinced that this was an altruistic gesture by a group of radicals and reformationists waging a war against Vatican sex crimes.

When they're gay and/or having sex, Catholics are just "keeping them honest" by ousting them from their positions, but when they're child molesters, suddenly they're good men of the cloth besieged by heinous mistruths. Unless this publication has a record of breaking from the Vatican line and calling out child predators, I see no reason to assume selfless intent in what they did.

I'll eat my words if that was the purpose of this investigation, and this guy was using Grindr to groom children, but there's no reason to think that this guy was doing anything but hooking up with other consenting adult men through the app.

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