Grindr Settles UK Privacy Class Action for £26 Million
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The dating app will pay millions to resolve allegations it shared sensitive user data, including HIV status, with third-party analytics firms.
Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million ($35.1 million) to settle a class action lawsuit in the UK, as first reported by The Register. The lawsuit, filed in England's High Court in April 2024 by law firm Austen Hays, alleged that the dating app shared users' personal data with third parties.
According to reporting from The Register, the claims were based on 2018 research from SINTEF which found that Grindr shared data with third-party analytics companies Apptimize and Localytics. This sensitive information reportedly included users' GPS locations, sexual orientation, and specific health data, including HIV status and the date of their last test. Austen Hays told The Register that such sharing could have enabled an unlimited number of third parties to customize or target advertising to the app's users.
The lawsuit alleged that these violations of UK data protection law occurred before April 3, 2018, and again between May 25, 2018, and April 7, 2020. In a Form 8-K filing, Grindr stated that the challenged practices took place before 2020, during a period when the app was owned by the Chinese company Kunlun. That ownership concluded after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) compelled Kunlun to divest the company. Grindr noted in the filing that it has since overhauled its privacy program and remains committed to responsible data practices.
Grindr will pay the settlement in two installments of £13 million, due by December 31, 2026, and March 31, 2027. The company admitted no liability as part of the settlement, though it acknowledged the loss of trust and distress felt by UK users during the pre-2020 period.
This settlement follows a separate legal battle in Norway. The Register reports that the Norwegian Data Protection Authority imposed a 65 million kroner ($6.9 million) penalty in December 2021 due to GDPR violations. In that instance, regulators determined that identifying a person as a Grindr user constituted special category data regarding their sex life or sexual orientation. The Norwegian regulator found that Grindr shared IP addresses, GPS locations, ages, genders, and advertising IDs with partners without valid consent. After years of challenges, the fine was upheld by Norway's Privacy Appeals Board in September 2023, the Oslo District Court in 2024, and the Borgarting Court of Appeal in October 2025.