LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr has agreed to pay £26m to settle a UK High Court group action which alleged to company had shared highly sensitive personal data, including HIV-related information in some cases, with third parties for advertising purposes before 2020.
The case, brought on behalf of about 12,000 users, dates back to when Grindr was owned and controlled by Chinese conglomerate Kunlun Tech.
US national security regulators forced Kunlun to sell the business due to data privacy concerns, with US-based investment group San Vicente Acquisition buying the app for about $608.5m (£465m) before taking it public.
The High Court settlement resolves the legal proceedings but Grindr still disputes the allegations and the settlement contains no finding or admission of liability.
Under the deal, Grindr will make two £13m payments, with the first due by December 31 2026 and the second by March 31 2027. If divided equally among 12,000 claimants, the £26 million settlement would average about £2,167 per claimant, although that does not necessarily represent the amount each person will receive.
Legal firm Austen Hays issued the claim in England and Wales in April 2024, alleging that Grindr had shared sensitive personal information with third parties without adequate user consent. The information identified in the claim included potential HIV status, the date users were last tested, and information relating to prescription medicine PrEP.
Information concerning health, sex life and sexual orientation is deemed as “special category” data under UK GDPR.
In its regulatory filing announcing the settlement, Grindr said it continues to dispute the allegations while acknowledging the distress and loss of trust expressed by some UK users over the historical period.
Crucially, Grindr has not faced severe sanctions in the UK before, instead the Information Commissioner’s Office issued a formal reprimand in July 2022, seen as a “slap on the wrist” by many.
However, Norway’s data protection authority took a much more hardline approach, whacking the firm with a £5.5m fine for selling its data to advertisers without adequate consent.
The move followed a complaint registered by the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) which claimed Grindr had been handing out sensitive user information willy-nilly to ad companies, in what it branded an “insane violation” of GDPR.
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