Grindr Settles UK Data Privacy Claims for £26m

Grindr will pay £26m ($35.2m) to settle UK group claims alleging unlawful sharing of sensitive data, including HIV status, before 2020, without admitting liability.

The settlement, reached on September 2 and disclosed to the US SEC, covers roughly 12,000 claimants represented by Austen Hays over the free app's 2016–2020 data practices when Grindr was owned by Chinese conglomerate Kunlun. Grindr will pay £13m by December 31, 2026 and £13m by March 31, 2027, and continues to dispute the allegations; the agreement contains no admission of liability. The claims concerned sharing HIV status, PrEP use, ethnicity, and sexual orientation data with analytics providers Apptimize and Localytics without adequate consent. Norway's data protection authority fined Grindr €6.5m in 2021, and the UK ICO reprimanded the company in July 2022.