The new location blurring tool lets male users safely use GPS technology to find nearby matches without fear of their location being broadcast.
The tool adds a rounding error to its members’ coordinates so that other men are given a general idea of their whereabouts without pinpointing their exact location.
Even Jack’d’s servers do not know the exact location of the app’s users.
Prior to the launch of the app’s new security tool, Jack’d decided to disable location sharing settings in countries where homosexuality was illegal.
Global Marketing Director at Jack’d, Alon Rivel, said: “The blurring feature was originally created as a tool to protect gay men in countries such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt that have a history of violence against the gay community.”
The feature has been built in response to a rise in the number of hate crimes against LGBT people.
According to the Los Angeles Times, hate crimes against gay men have increased by 24.5% since the US election.
The number of hate crimes against LGBT people is thought to have outnumbered those aimed at Jews, Muslims, Asians and Latinos combined.
Rivel added: “The world will live in is still not LGBTQ tolerant and with 70% of our users being young millennials, we have to be proactive in protecting their privacy.”
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