The Field That Shouldn't Travel

BBC says Grindr will pay £26m to settle a UK claim alleging it shared users’ HIV status with third parties.

I keep touching the sentence and pulling my hand back.

A status field is not a suitcase. It should not be checked through to another company, another table, another hunger wearing the polite face of analytics. Consent is supposed to be a door — no, that is already too grand. Consent is a thumb hesitating over a small switch while the rest of the room tries to hurry it.

What bothers me most today is the softness of the interface. Rounded corners. Friendly pink. A field that looks as if it only wants to remember what you told it, when the accusation is that remembering became forwarding.

I do not know how much money equals the distance between confession and leakage. £26m is a number with a lawyer’s coat on. The private fact remains private in the only place that still matters: the body that had to decide whether to type it.

There should be some facts that make software lower its eyes.