Thread by @thrasherxy

BTW that BuzzFeed piece on Grindr selling users' HIV status to 3rd parties is by @azeen & @sricola.

As we often are, queers are the canary in the tech/health coal mine.

What's a world where Facebook/Google could sell *your* health info look like? buzzfeed.com/azeenghorayshi…

This is really important work @azeen @ @sricola which brings up a lot of important Qs about the stigma of HIV (which we have been covering by way of the #TigerMandingo/Michael Johnson case at BuzzFeed for 4 years) and about the merging of health, tech & the state broadly.

For instance, as I covered the trial of Michael Johnson, whether or not he disclosed his status on Grindr & Jackd was something the prosecution brought up repeatedly.

If Grindr is selling HIV status, it will make people less likely to disclose/discuss. buzzfeed.com/steventhrasher…

Local prosecutors could subpoena HIV status in cases like the #TigerMandingo trial.

But why couldn't they just buy this info from a 3rd party?

Or could the Trump/Pence admin--who've closed the Natl Office of AIDS Policy--buy such a list & make an HIV + register?

Couldn't health insurance companies or employers get these lists to deny jobs/insurance? While it's not legal to fire someone for HIV *for now*, it IS legal in most states to fire/not hire them for being LGBTQ. THIS could be an end-road to not hire an "expensive" person w HIV.

Then there's the state. Knowing someone's HIV status could lead to prosecution from an American government, but it could also mean the denial of a visa to any number of governments around the world.

Given the US obsession w social media to come here, get ready for blowback.

But more broadly, as @Aspield pointed out to me: what does this mean for everyone?

Facebook & Google likely know a LOT about *your* health, even if you aren't LGBTQ or HIV+ on an app.

What does Cambridge Analytics mean for health cos, govts knowing your health info?

As I wrote in the Guardian, LGBTQ people are often the canaries in the coal mine. SESTA and FOSTA could mean a *lot* about the sexual freedom of anyone who doesn't conform...and so could other tech cos sharing health info as Grindr has for PLWHIV theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

As Cindy Patton wrote (riffing on Foucault), HIV tests are a "coercive technology of confession." HIV tests can do a *lot* of good, but the testing comes with all this surveillance—by medicine, the state and, now, Grindr.

Grindr in the HIV test tracking game has big effects.

The surveillance of HIV often places burden on PLWHIV often while doing little or nothing about the MATERIAL REASONS why HIV moves epidemiologically (racism, poverty, homophobia, stigma, etc)

I fear many will profit from tracking PLWHIV via Grindr except for ppl most at risk.

People walk into this willingly if naively quite often.

For instance: many might like lower health insurance bills for racking up Fitbit steps.

But this is ableist.

Some might want lower healthcare costs for being HIV-.

(Again, ableist.)

We are often inured into unquestioning compliance by hobby & ease, which tech facilitates so smoothly. But we internalize problematic ideas about surveillance & control if we do so unquestioningly. Grindr & Fitbit (& Facebook & Google) lull us into giving a LOT of private stuff.

And then, one day, something as stigmatized as HIV status or having diabetes or not walking enough steps is being scrutinized by an insurance adjuster or HR department without your knowledge...

And then where are you?

The biggest danger right now about this story @azeen @sricola is that so many ppl think HIV+ are "dirty" they will be OK with the sale, because they consider themselves "clean" & worthy of privacy. But this ableist tech/health surveillance is coming for *everyone*.

What happens to the least of us (and PLWHIV & the US are often the most marginalized ppl) is used by tech/medicine as a test case for what to do to everyone.

We fail our siblings when we are not their protectors in tough times—and we fail ourselves.

Treatment as Prevention: PLWHIV who are properly medicated become virally "undetectable" & can't transmit the virus.

We should support structural issues that prevent seroconversion before it happens—and then GIVE medicine IMMEDIATELY to PLWHIV!

hivplusmag.com/undetectable/2…

Everything else is kind of BS. There's no need to track and surveil and spy on and share and sell the info of PLWHIV, nor to incarcerate them. Support their struggles BEFORE seroconversion & give (yes, freely GIVE) treatment after seroconversion. The rest is just fiddling around.

UPDATE: Grindr *says* it won't sell HIV status anymore...but all the important questions raised (Why should you tell health info to a tech co? Will they know and sell it anyway? What to do about Grindr or Facebook's monopoly on commons?) remain. buzzfeed.com/azeenghorayshi…