Grindr Sued in UK for Allegedly Sharing Users’ HIV Data With Ad Firms

Grindr Inc. was sued by users for sharing sensitive personal information, including their HIV status, with advertising companies in a London lawsuit.

The LGBTQ+ app allegedly shared information to third parties for commercial purposes without the users’ consent, which included data on ethnicity, sexual orientation and HIV test dates, according to law firm Austen Hays which filed the claim at the High Court Monday.

The service — described as the world’s largest social-networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people — was previously fined $6 million by Norway in 2021 for data privacy behavior that breached Europe’s strict privacy laws. The UK’s privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, also investigated the app and issued a warning against breaches.

The law firm filed the class action style claim on behalf of potentially hundreds of users. They say the data breach happened mainly before April 2018 and between May 2018 and April 2020 and included two adtech companies, Localytics and Apptimize.

“Grindr owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to compensate those whose data has been compromised and have suffered distress as a result, and to ensure all its users are safe while using the app, wherever they are, without fear that their data might be shared with third parties,” Chaya Hanoomanjee, a lawyer at Austen Hays, said.

A spokesperson for Grindr didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We are committed to protecting our users’ data and complying with all applicable data privacy regulations, including in the UK,” Grindr said in a statement. “We intend to respond vigorously to this claim, which appears to be based on a mischaracterization of practices from more than four years ago.”

Photograph: The Grindr app logo. Photo credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images