Grindr Agrees to £26m Settlement Over Alleged Sharing of User Data

Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million to settle a UK lawsuit over allegations that the LGBTQ+ dating app shared users’ sensitive personal information with third parties, including data relating to HIV status.

The proposed settlement follows a High Court claim brought against Grindr in 2024 by users who alleged that the company had breached UK privacy laws by sharing sensitive information for commercial purposes. The case was subsequently served in the US, with the law firm representing claimants saying more than 11,000 people had joined the action.

According to a regulatory filing, Grindr will make two £13 million payments, with the first due by the end of December 2026 and the second by March 2027. The settlement does not include an admission of liability by the company.

Grindr has emphasised that the allegations relate to data practices from before 2020, when the company was owned by Chinese firm Kunlun. The claims concern information including users’ sexual orientation, ethnicity and HIV status.

Grindr allows users to voluntarily disclose their HIV status and the date of their most recent test. The feature is intended to support conversations around sexual health, but the lawsuit alleged that information was shared with third-party analytics companies Apptimize and Localytics and could subsequently be used for advertising purposes.

The case follows earlier scrutiny of Grindr’s data practices. In 2018, reports emerged that the company had shared HIV-related information with analytics providers. Grindr subsequently said it had stopped sharing HIV data with those companies. Norway’s data protection authority later fined the company £5.5 million over its data practices, while the UK Information Commissioner’s Office reprimanded Grindr in 2022.

Grindr said in its latest filing that it has overhauled its privacy practices since 2020 and recognised the “distress and loss of trust” expressed by some UK users over the historical practices.