Grindr to pay £26m to settle claims it allegedly shared users' HIV status

Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million to settle a lawsuit alleging it shared users’ HIV status and other sensitive data with third parties. The settlement resolves claims brought in the UK High Court in 2024 by the law firm Austen Hayes, which said it had signed up more than 11,000 claimants in a class‑action suit filed in the United States. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dated 2 September, Grindr will make two £13 million payments – the first by 31 December and the second by 31 March 2027. The filing states that the settlement includes no admission of liability. Grindr said the alleged conduct relates to “historical information practices” prior to 2020, when the app was owned by the Chinese company Kunlun. In its SEC filing the company noted, “While Grindr disputes the allegations, it recognizes and acknowledges the distress and loss of trust expressed by some of its UK users regarding that pre‑2020 period.” The lawsuit, led by lawyer Chaya Hanoomanjee, accused Grindr of sharing personal details – including HIV status, ethnicity and sexual orientation – with analytics providers Apptimize and Localytics for advertising purposes. Hanoomanjee said in April 2024 that claimants had “experienced significant distress” over the unauthorized disclosure of their sensitive information. She added that the firm “owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to compensate those whose information has been compromised.” Grindr has maintained that the HIV‑status field was intended to let users voluntarily share their status to reduce stigma and inform health decisions. The company said it stopped sharing HIV data with the identified third parties after the 2018 revelations that such sharing was occurring. Prior regulatory actions include a £5.5 million fine from Norway’s data‑protection watchdog in 2018 and a reprimand from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office in 2022 for similar privacy breaches. In its Friday filing, Grindr stated that since 2020 it had “overhauled” its privacy practices to better meet the “unique needs of its community.” The company concluded, “Grindr is and remains a safe space for users, committed to transparency, user control, and responsible data practices.”