Grindr Banned From Twitter Ad Network Following Alleged GDPR Breach

GDI 15th January 202015th January 2020

Twitter has suspended Grindr from its advertising network after a report revealed serious privacy concerns with the gay dating app.

A report from the Norwegian Consumer Council claimed that Grindr shares the personal data of its estimated three million worldwide daily users to ad tech partners, including Twitter’s MoPub.

Twitter said it would investigate how Grindr obtained permission from users to share their data, which is at the heart of the complaint.

“We are currently investigating this issue to understand the sufficiency of Grindr’s consent mechanism,” a Twitter spokeswoman said in an e-mail statement. “In the meantime, we have disabled Grindr’s MoPub account.”

The Norwegian Consumer Council announced it was planning to file complaints to local regulators to investigate whether or not GDPR had been violated. A similar suggestion to look into the companies’ practices is also being made to US regulators.

“Twitter’s MoPub managed data transmissions that included personal data of a Grindr user,” according to researchers from Mnemonic, a Norwegian security firm that studied the app and ad tech partners.

“Simultaneously, a number of other third parties were observed receiving personal data directly through their SDK integrations in the Grindr app.”

The report is calling for both Twitter and Grindr to face fines for violating GDPR, which could total as much as 4% of their annual revenue. In Grindr’s case, this would be approximately $920,000.