Grindr has agreed to pay £26m ($35.2m) to settle a UK group action over allegations that it unlawfully processed users' personal data and misused private information before 2020.
The settlement was reached on September 2 and disclosed to investors two days later in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The LGBTQ dating app said the claim related to historical data practices from a period when the company was owned and controlled by Chinese conglomerate Kunlun.
The agreement contains no finding or admission of liability, and Grindr continues to dispute the allegations. It will pay £13m ($17.6m) by December 31, 2026 and a further £13m by March 31, 2027.
Sensitive Data at Center of UK Claims
Law firm Austen Hays issued the claim at the High Court of England and Wales on April 22, 2024, alleging that Grindr shared sensitive personal data with third parties without adequate consent. Grindr said it was served with the proceedings in April 2025.
Austen Hays said the claim covered HIV status, last tested date and whether users took PrEP, with ethnicity and data relating to sex life or sexual orientation also potentially shared. It said the action related to users of the free version of the app between 2016 and 2020.
Grindr had disclosed in 2018 that it shared HIV data with two analytics providers, Apptimize and Localytics, and said it stopped after researchers in Norway revealed the arrangement.
Health, sex life and sexual orientation all receive special protection under UK data protection law, which places them among the categories where unlawful data sharing carries the highest regulatory and civil exposure.
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Grindr's filing also acknowledged the distress and loss of trust expressed by some UK users over the pre-2020 period, while continuing to dispute the claims themselves.
Settlement Closes Historical Privacy Claims
The action covered two claims. Austen Hays has said it represents about 12,000 people, a figure that would give an average of roughly £2167 ($2928) to each claimant if the settlement were divided equally, though the distribution method has not been confirmed.
The company said it had been sold to new owners in 2020 and had since overhauled its privacy program, describing Grindr as a safe space committed to transparency and user control.
Other regulators have found Grindr to have engaged in unlawful data practices. Norway's data protection authority fined Grindr €6.5m ($7549) in 2021 over sharing user data for behavioral advertising without a legal basis, a penalty upheld when Grindr lost a challenge in the Oslo District Court in 2024.
The UK Information Commissioner's Office reprimanded the company in July 2022 for failing to give UK users effective and transparent privacy information.
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