The creators of GPS may not have envisioned that in addition to helping people navigate a cross-country road trip, or just find the nearest Starbucks, the tool would be a key component of gay dating and hookup apps like Grindr and Scruff. Finding the hot guy is only half the battle, after all. The other half is figuring out if he’s near you.

That asset, though, can be a liability if people doing the search are motivated more by homophobia than romance.

“This feature of the GPS-enabled app that was so exciting for us here in the United States, being able to meet guys nearby, became something of a liability for our members that were in other regions and other countries where homosexuality is criminalized,” said Eric Silverberg, a founder (with Johnny Skandros) of Scruff, and its chief executive. Last year, for example, a user in Saudi Arabia reported that the police in Riyadh had used the app to entice then deport an acquaintance.

To help keep users safer, Scruff is adding a new traveler alert feature this week. Now, when a user arrives in one of the nearly 100 countries where homosexual acts are criminalized, an alert will pop up when they open Scruff. Headed to Sudan? You might want to be aware that sexual acts between consenting adult males are illegal there, and can lead to corporal punishment or even the death penalty.