Grindr agrees £26m UK privacy lawsuit settlement

Grindr has agreed to pay £26m to settle a UK lawsuit brought by thousands of users who alleged the dating app shared highly sensitive personal information, including some users’ HIV status, with third parties.

The settlement ends a two-year legal fight over claims that the world’s largest LGBTQ+ dating app misused users’ personal data and breached UK privacy laws during a period before 2020. Grindr said the deal contains no admission of liability.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it had reached a settlement on 2 September over what it called “historical data practices” from the period when Grindr was owned and controlled by the Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech.

“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 the filing.

Grindr will pay £13m by 31 December and a further £13m by 31 March 2027, according to the filing. The Guardian reported that the London law firm Austen Hays represented 12,000 people, who would receive an average of £2,167 each if the money were distributed equally. The BBC reported that the firm leading the case said it had signed up more than 11,000 claimants after the class action was served in the US.

Austen Hays filed the claim at the High Court of England and Wales in April 2024, alleging Grindr shared sensitive information with third parties for commercial purposes. The claim said the data included users’ ethnicity, sexual orientation and, in some cases, HIV status and the date of their last HIV test.

Grindr allows users to share their HIV status and last test date, a feature the company says is intended to reduce stigma, support conversations and help users make informed health choices.

Chaya Hanoomanjee, the lawyer who led the claim, said in April 2024 that claimants had “experienced significant distress” over 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 in the claim as third parties that had access to sensitive data. The BBC reported that the claim said a potentially unlimited number of third parties used the data to customise advertisements to Grindr users.

The case followed 2018 revelations that Grindr had shared personal data, including users’ HIV status, with the two analytics providers. Grindr defended the practice at the time as consistent with industry standards, but said it later stopped sharing HIV data with those companies.

Grindr said in its filing that since 2020 it has “overhauled” its privacy programme “with a keen focus on the unique needs of its community”. The company added: “Grindr is and remains a safe space for users, committed to transparency, user control and responsible data practices.”

Austen Hays’ parent firm, Gateley, said: “We thank our clients for trusting us with this sensitive case.”

Grindr was founded in 2009 and says it is the world’s largest dating app for gay, bi, trans and queer people, with nearly 15 million users worldwide, according to The Guardian. The company, based in West Hollywood, was sold six years ago to investment group San Vicente Acquisition in a $608m deal after a US government national security panel raised concerns that personal data of US users could be accessed and used by China’s government, The Guardian reported. In 2022, Grindr floated on the New York Stock Exchange through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in a deal valuing the app at $2.1bn.

The company has previously faced regulatory action over its data practices. The BBC reported that Norway’s data protection watchdog fined Grindr £5.5m and that the UK Information Commissioner’s Office later reprimanded the company in 2022. The Guardian reported that Norway’s data protection authority fined Grindr 65m Norwegian krone, or £4.8m, in 2021 and that Norway’s court of appeal upheld the decision and fine last October.