Grindr, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ dating app, has agreed to pay $35 million to settle a lawsuit over claims it shared users’ highly sensitive personal data — including their HIV status — with third-party companies without their consent.
Grindr to pay £26m to settle claims it allegedly shared users’ HIV status https://t.co/MogbQd8Bsd
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 7, 2026
The settlement, filed with U.S. securities regulators on September 2nd, resolves a class action lawsuit that was first brought in the UK High Court in 2024 by law firm Austen Hayes, which signed up more than 11,000 claimants.
The suit alleged Grindr shared users’ data — including their ethnicity, sexual orientation, and HIV status — with two data analytics companies, Apptimize and Localytics, for commercial advertising purposes, violating UK privacy laws.
Grindr will pay the $35 million in two installments and stresses the settlement includes no admission of liability. The company says the claims relate strictly to data practices before 2020, when it was owned by Chinese firm Kunlun, and that it has since overhauled its privacy policies.
This isn’t the first time Grindr has faced consequences over this issue.
Back in 2018, reports first surfaced about the HIV data sharing. The company was fined £5.5m 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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