Key facts
- Grindr will pay £26 million to settle a UK lawsuit.
- The lawsuit alleged the sharing of sensitive personal information, including HIV status, with advertising companies.
- Thousands of UK users are set to receive compensation.
- The settlement resolves a two-year legal battle concerning alleged violations of UK privacy laws.
- Grindr stated it disputes the allegations and that the settlement includes no admission of liability.
Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million to settle a UK lawsuit over allegations that it shared users' personal information, including their HIV status, with third parties. The class action suit, initiated in 2024, alleged that the world's largest LGBTQ+ dating app misused people's sensitive data in breach of UK privacy laws. The law firm leading the case stated that over 11,000 claimants had signed up. Grindr will make two payments of £13 million each to settle the claims, with the first due by December 31 and the second by March 31, 2027. The company stressed that the settlement includes no admission of liability and relates to historical data practices before 2020, when it was owned by Chinese firm Kunlun. Grindr acknowledged the distress caused by these pre-2020 practices and stated it has since overhauled its privacy protocols. The sensitive data, which users can optionally share to reduce stigma, included information about ethnicity and HIV status, and was allegedly shared with data analytics services for advertising customization.