Catholic Group Spends Millions on Dating App Data to Out Gay Priests [View all]

A conservative Catholic group in Colorado bought mobile app tracking data worth millions of dollars in order to identify gay priests across the US.

According to a Washington Post investigation(Opens in a new window), Denver-based Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal exclusively used commercially available information in its bid to track and locate gay priests. The data spans 2018 through 2021 and includes gay dating and hookup apps like Grindr, Scruff, Growlr, and Jack’d, as well as OkCupid. The Post found that most of the data appears to be from Grindr.

In its hunt for gay priests, Catholic Laity purchased data from ad brokers that showed the type of device, its location, the device ID, and the internet service provider being used along with other identifiers. The group then cross-referenced the legally purchased data with church residences that house priests.

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