AdTech Company Xandr Fined $9.6 Million Over Grindr User Data
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) has fined Microsoft’s advertising technology unit Xandr 92 million Norwegian kroner ($9.6 million) for illegally sharing sensitive data from Grindr users. The regulator found that Xandr passed information that could reveal users’ sexual orientation to thousands of advertisers between July 2018 and April 2020.
Xandr operates a platform that allows companies to buy and sell digital advertising through automated auctions. The company claimed it had assumed Grindr had obtained users’ consent. Datatilsynet rejected that argument, ruling that Xandr was responsible for ensuring the data was handled legally.
Grindr received a fine of 65 million Norwegian kroner (approximately $7.2 million at the time) in December 2021 for sharing users’ personal data with advertising partners without valid consent. The company challenged the decision, but Norway’s Court of Appeal upheld the fine in October 2025.
The case began with complaints filed in 2020 by the Norwegian Consumer Council and European privacy organisation noyb. The $9.6 million penalty is the largest fine Datatilsynet has ever issued.
