Grindr has agreed to pay £26m to settle a lawsuit over allegations it shared users’ personal information – including their HIV status – with third parties.
The world’s largest LGBTQ+ dating app was sued in the High Court in 2024 over claims it misused people’s personal information.
The class action suit was later served in the US, with the law firm leading the case saying it had signed up more than 11,000 claimants.
According to a US regulatory filing, Grindr will make two £13m payments to settle the claims. The firm said the settlement includes no admission of liability.
Grindr stressed the claims relate to “historical data practices” before 2020 when it was owned by Chinese firm Kunlun.
The filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission by Grindr said a settlement had been reached on 2 September.
“While Grindr disputes the allegations, it recognizes and acknowledges the distress and loss of trust expressed by some of its UK users regarding that pre-2020 period,” the company said in its filing.
The firm has agreed to pay £13m to the counterparties by 31 December and a further £13m by 31 March 2027.
‘Significant distress’
The claims brought more than two years ago by law firm Austen Hayes alleged Grindr had shared sensitive data with third parties for commercial purposes, breaching UK privacy laws.
It said this included information about the ethnicity and sexual orientation of its users.
People on Grindr have the option to share their HIV status along with when they were last tested – a move it says aims to reduce stigma, facilitate conversations and help users make informed health choices.
Chaya Hanoomanjee, the lawyer who led the claim, said in April 2024 claimants had “experienced significant distress” over their sensitive and private information being shared without their consent.
She said the company “owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to compensate those whose data has been compromised”.
Two data analytics services, Apptimize and Localytics, were identified as third parties with access to the sensitive data.
The claim said a potentially unlimited number of third parties used it to customise advertisements to Grindr’s users.
It followed revelations in 2018 that Grindr had been sharing personal data, including the HIV status of its users, with the two data analytics providers.
Grindr defended the practice at the time as in line with industry standards – but it said it then stopped sharing HIV data with those companies.
It was fined £5.5m by Norway’s data protection watchdog and, later in 2022, reprimanded by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office for its data practices.
The company said in its filing on Friday that since 2020, it had “overhauled” its privacy practices to help meet the “unique needs of its community”.
“Grindr is and remains a safe space for users, committed to transparency, user control, and responsible data practices,” it said.
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3 April 2018
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