Grindr to Pay £26m to Resolve Claims of Unauthorized HIV Data Sharing

London – Grindr, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ dating app, has agreed to pay £26 million to settle a class‑action lawsuit that accused the company of sharing users’ personal information, including HIV status, with third‑party data analytics firms.

The settlement, announced through a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, will be paid in two £13 million installments. The first payment is due by 31 December 2026, with a second due by 31 March 2027.

Grindr said the lawsuit centred on “historical data practices” before 2020, when the app was owned by Chinese company Kunlun. The company added that it does not admit liability but acknowledges the “distress” felt by some UK users.

The class action was originally brought by law firm Austen Hayes, which argued that Grindr had breached UK privacy laws by sharing sensitive data—including ethnicity, sexual orientation, and HIV status—with third parties for commercial use. Two analytics partners, Apptimize and Localytics, were cited as recipients of the data.

Following earlier revelations in 2018 that Grindr had shared user HIV status with these analytics firms, the app was fined £5.5 million by Norway’s data protection watchdog and later reprimanded by the UK Information Commission’s Office for its data practices. Grindr claims it ceased sharing HIV data with these partners after 2020 and has overhauled its privacy policies.

“Grindr is and remains a safe space, committed to transparency, user control, and responsible data practices,” the company said in its filing.

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