● Covered by 3 sources · 3 reportsMedium impact3 neutral
Grindr to pay £26M to settle claims of sharing user HIV status and personal data
Key points
- Grindr will pay £26 million to settle a lawsuit.
- Claims involved sharing user HIV status and other personal data.
- Practices occurred before 2020 under previous ownership.
- Settlement includes no admission of liability from Grindr.
- Grindr's settlement amount is $35.1 million.
- The lawsuit was filed in April 2024.
- The claims were brought by over 10,000 clients.
- Grindr was managed by Kunlun before 2020.
- Kunlun sold Grindr to San Vicente Acquisition LLC in May 2020.
- The settlement was disclosed in a September 2, 2026, SEC filing.
- Grindr will pay the settlement in two lump sums.
- One payment is due by the end of December, the other by the end of March.
- The SEC filing was signed on September 4.
Grindr Settles Data Sharing Lawsuit
Grindr, the LGBTQ+ dating application, has reached a settlement of £26 million in a lawsuit concerning allegations of sharing users' personal information, including their HIV status, with third parties. The class action suit, initiated in the UK High Court in 2024 and later served in the US, involved over 11,000 claimants.
Details of the Settlement
According to a US regulatory filing, Grindr will make two payments of £13 million each to resolve the claims. The first payment is due by December 31, and the second by March 31, 2027. Grindr stated that the settlement does not include an admission of liability and emphasized that the allegations relate to "historical data practices" from before 2020, when the company was owned by Chinese firm Kunlun.
Allegations of Data Misuse
The lawsuit, led by law firm Austen Hayes, alleged that Grindr shared sensitive user data, including ethnicity, sexual orientation, and HIV status, with third parties for commercial purposes, violating UK privacy laws. Two data analytics services, Apptimize and Localytics, were identified as having access to this sensitive information, which was reportedly used to customize advertisements.
Impact on Users and Company Response
Claimants reported experiencing significant distress due to their private information being shared without consent. Grindr acknowledged the distress and loss of trust expressed by some UK users regarding the pre-2020 period. The company had previously defended its data sharing practices in 2018 as being in line with industry standards but subsequently stopped sharing HIV data with the analytics providers.
Updates
- Grindr will pay the settlement in two lump sums.
- One payment is due by the end of December, the other by the end of March.
- The SEC filing was signed on September 4.
- Grindr's settlement amount is $35.1 million.
- The lawsuit was filed in April 2024.
- The claims were brought by over 10,000 clients.
- Grindr was managed by Kunlun before 2020.
- Kunlun sold Grindr to San Vicente Acquisition LLC in May 2020.
- The settlement was disclosed in a September 2, 2026, SEC filing.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
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Primary sources
GitHub SINTEF-9012/grindr-privacy-leaksHow outlets covered it
Grindr has agreed to pay $35.2 million to settle a UK lawsuit alleging the LGBTQ+ dating app shared sensitive user data, including HIV statuses, with advertisers before 2020. This settlement concludes a legal dispute regarding alleged violations of UK privacy laws, though Grindr denies liability.
Grindr will pay £26 million to settle a UK lawsuit alleging it shared users' personal information, including HIV status, with third parties before 2020. This settlement addresses claims brought by over 10,000 clients regarding violations of UK privacy laws for commercial purposes.
Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it shared users' personal information, including HIV status, with third parties before 2020. This settlement addresses claims of privacy breaches and misuse of sensitive data, highlighting the ongoing legal and ethical challenges faced by tech companies regarding user data protection.