Grindr has reached a settlement in a UK lawsuit filed in 2024 accusing the dating app of breaking UK privacy laws. It will pay plaintiffs £26 million (~$35 million) over allegations that Grindr shared app users’ sensitive information – including their ethnicity, sexual orientation, and in some cases, their HIV status – with third parties that sold it to advertisers. The company still denies liability and disputes the allegations.
By Faefyx Collington
The agreement took place earlier this month and came to light when Grindr filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to notify the US government of the settlement and planned payout from the US company.
When the legal action was filed in London’s high court in 2024, 670 people had signed on to the claim, but lawyers representing Grindr users said at the time that “thousands” more had already expressed interest in joining the lawsuit. Those were not idle words. At the time of the settlement, more than 11,000 claimants had signed on.
Grindr has now agreed to pay out £13 million (~$17.6 million) by December 31st, with another £13 million due by March 31, 2027.
According to the 2024 filing, Apptimize and Localytics, two data analytics services, had been verified as third-party entities with whom Grindr shared users’ personal information. The filing also suggested that there was no way to know just how many third-party advertisers were able to use that personal data to target Grindr users.
The lawsuit likely doesn’t affect new users, as the filing addresses activities that took place from 2018 to 2020. It came to light in 2018 that Grindr had been sharing data with the analytics services, a move the company defended as in line with industry standards. However, shortly afterward, Grindr officials said the company would cease sharing users’ HIV statuses. The lawsuit alleges that the practice continued.
This is not the first time that Grindr has run afoul of data privacy laws in other countries. In 2021, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority fined the app €6.5 million (~$7.5 million) for sharing user data with advertisers in violation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
While it’s paying millions in the settlement, Grindr still denies any liability in the case. The company writes in its SEC filing, “The settlement includes no findings or admission of liability. 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.”
Grindr was launched by Joel Simkahi in Los Angeles in 2009. However, in 2016, the Chinese video game company Beijing Kunlun Tech purchased a controlling share. In March 2018, Grindr went on to add a feature allowing users to opt in to periodic reminders to get tested for HIV. While a possible public health boon, the option also likely provided the company with additional information. After a 2019 notification from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States said that a Chinese company owning the app was a national security risk, Kunlun sold the business to San Vicente Acquisition LLC in 2020.
In addition to implying that the Chinese company holds responsibility for the period in question, the filing also emphasizes changes made since the period on which the lawsuit focuses: “Since 2020 Grindr has overhauled its privacy program with a keen focus on the unique needs of its community. Grindr is and remains a safe space for users, committed to transparency, user control, and responsible data practices.”
Source: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/09/grindr-to-pay-millions-over-allegations-it-shared-private-data-of-thousands-of-uk-users/
