In Wisconsin, Dating Apps Are Becoming Vital Public Health Allies 

To public health officials in Wisconsin’s Madison & Dane County, dating apps are not only virtual matchmakers. They’re innovative tools for confronting a major public health challenge: notifying people who have been exposed to an STI. 

County health officials have launched a CDC-recommended Digital Partner Services initiative to make sure those at risk are notified efficiently and discreetly.

After all, 3 in 10 surveyed adults have used dating apps, according to a 2023 Pew Research study, making dating apps frequent origin points of one-night stands and relationships alike.  

The Madison & Dane County initiative transforms dating apps into powerful public health tools. 

“The dating landscape is really changing,” Naomi Clear, the department’s partner services coordinator, told Wisconsin Public Radio. “This is a really important way for us to adapt to the current climate, meet our clients where they are and make our services more accessible.”

Public health officials see dating apps as an opportunity to make people healthier. And dating platforms have an opportunity here, too, which is to follow their lead and provide helpful health resources and information that destigmatizes HIV and STI testing. 

Providing Reliable Public Health Info Amplifies User Trust

Grindr has been on the cutting edge of HIV and STI prevention for years, and has even partnered with the CDC and local public health departments to provide users with health resources about STI prevention, including info about PrEP and HIV testing. 

Grindr’s social impact initiative, Grindr for Equality, aims to “empower LGBTQ+ individuals and communities with the knowledge and tools to take charge of their health, promoting their well-being and advancing the global effort to end HIV.” And Grindr put its money where its mouth is.

By distributing 475,000 HIV self-test kits around the world, as well as encouraging users to clearly indicate on their profiles that they take STI and HIV prevention medication, Grindr has taken STI prevention into its own hands. It knows that modern daters want to be in control of their hearts and their health. 

In this way, dating apps can be a trusted place for people of all identities to seek out community, and take a healthier step forward.

Apps are the origin point of many relationships, so when they offer these crucial resources, it amplifies user trust. Users know that if they come into contact with an STI, the dating app will be able to help them find more information, and perhaps even seek out medical care. 

And trust is everything with STI prevention — and notification. Those who have been diagnosed with HIV or an STI may not want to disclose their status, which makes giving their former sex partners a heads up a little difficult, perpetuating the STI infection cycle. 

Madison & Dane County public health officials (and the CDC) believe the DPS initiative could be a modern solution to this ongoing challenge. 

When Sharing Private Health Info, Confidentiality is Key

People often use the internet as a mask, hiding behind anonymity. Others are simply uncomfortable talking about their HIV or STI status. This poses a serious, if understandable, problem for the public health officials tasked with informing people that they’ve been exposed to an STI. 

As the CDC puts it, these officials often have no choice but to play virtual detective. “Individuals for whom there are only virtual identifiers, such as an email address or profile name, may be unreachable without access to the internet, email, text, mobile applications, and other digital tools.” 

It doesn’t help that connections can happen so quickly on the apps that by the time someone needs to make contact, they may not have access to their former partner’s phone number. When this happens, their only means of communication — and of stopping the spread of an STI — is via the dating app they met on.  

With privacy at the forefront, Madison and Dane County public health officials will only use the most necessary identification information when reaching out to people on the apps. 

Usually, the person who has been infected will provide the username(s) of the person or people they’ve had sexual contact with through a dating app, and the department staff will reach out to arrange a phone call, citing information about a “health matter.”

“We never say anything about the person who exposed them,” Clear said. According to the press release, public health officials aren’t using dating apps to flirt, but to convey crucial health information as confidentially as possible: “Messaging is limited to arranging a phone call, at which point specific health information can be shared securely.”

In addition to reaching out to potentially at-risk people on the GBTQ+ app SCRUFF, health officials also plan to contact people through major non-dating apps like Instagram. The DPS initiative meets modern daters where they are, without judgement and without stigma. 

Approximately 222 STI cases were reported in Dane County in February; this number dropped to 175 in June. It’s hard to say for sure if the county’s DPS initiative played a direct role in this decrease.

But what we do know is that efficient, confidential, and competent notification by a public health professional is key to curbing the spread of STIs. 

“STIs are more common than people think,” Clear said. Dane County’s graph speaks for itself; of the 175 confirmed STI cases in June, 142 were chlamydia. Why so many chlamydia cases? For now, it’s a mystery, one public health officials need to track in order to solve.

According to Clear, communicating through apps is just one more way for health officials to achieve their ultimate goal: “Our goal here is to reduce the spread.”