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Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million ($48 million) to settle a lawsuit over allegations it sold users’ personal information, including their HIV status, to third parties.
The world’s largest LGBTQ+ dating app was sued in London’s High Court in April 2024 over claims it shared people’s sensitive information.
The class-action suit against the California-based company was served in the U.S. in April 2025, and two months later, Austen Hayes, the London law firm leading the case, said it had about 12,000 claimants, the BBC reported.
A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Sept. 2 said Grindr resolved the class action, and will make two £13-million (24-million) payments to settle the claims — the first to be paid by Dec. 31, and the second by March 31, 2027.
The firm said the settlement includes no admission of liability, with Grindr noting the “historical data practices” occurred when it was “owned and controlled by the Chinese conglomerate Kunlun.”
“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 company said in its filing.
‘Significant distress’
Chaya Hanoomanjee, the lawyer who led the claim, said in 2024 that claimants had “experienced significant distress over their sensitive and private information being shared without their consent.”
She added that many suffered feelings of fear, embarrassment and anxiety as a result.
“Grindr owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to compensate those whose data has been compromised and have suffered distress as a result, and to ensure all its users are safe while using the app, wherever they are, without fear that their data might be shared with third parties,” Hanoomanjee added.
“Grindr users who think they may be affected by this breach should join the claim so that we can seek redress for them.”
First allegations in 2018
Two data analytics services, Apptimize and Localytics, were identified as third parties with access to the sensitive data, who in turn used the information to customize ads to Grindr’s users.
The first allegations against Grindr date back to 2018, resulting in the dating app defending its practices at the time, insisting they were in line with industry standards — but then stopped sharing HIV data with those companies.
It was fined £5.5 million ($1 million) by Norway’s data protection watchdog and, later in 2022, reprimanded by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office for its data practices.
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Grindr users have the option to share their HIV status as well as when they were last tested, a move that aims to help people make informed health choices, encourage transparent conversations, and reduce sexual health stigma.
The company pointed out in the filing that it has “overhauled its privacy program,” reiterating that the app “remains a safe space for users, committed to transparency, user control, and responsible data practices.”