SCRUFF has always recognized the unique responsibility it bears to the LGBTQ community, especially as it pertains to the security and privacy of member data. We know the sensitivity of HIV status, and know that it has been used to discriminate against our community in the past. Health information, including HIV status, is data we have not and would not ever share with third-party advertising networks.
Our advertising policy is clear: when we accept money from direct advertisers (i.e., advertisers who show full-screen ads shown when you first open SCRUFF), we make sure that they are promoting relevant and beneficial products for our community, and the ads they place are serviced 100% in-app and come with no extra data nor API calls.
Ultimately, our business model is based on subscriptions sold to the members of the SCRUFF community. This means we are successful when we make software that people love to use. We don't spend our days trying to squeeze a marginal penny out of some remainder bin ad unit by trading personal data of our users.
Instead, we spend our time focused on how to make an excellent product, that works reliably, is free of spambots and harassment, and connects guys with each other and the global gay, bi, trans and queer community.