Grindr Agrees to £26M Settlement Over Claims It Shared Users' HIV Status With Third Parties

Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million to settle a UK class action lawsuit following allegations that the dating application improperly shared sensitive user information including HIV status, ethnicity, and sexual orientation with third-party advertising companies.

The agreement concludes a two-year legal battle initiated in the High Court of England and Wales by law firm Austen Hays on behalf of thousands of UK users. If distributed equally among the approximately 12,000 claimants involved, each individual will receive an average compensation of around £2,167.

According to a regulatory filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Grindr will issue two separate £13 million payments to settle the claims, with the first due by the end of December and the second by March 31st, 2027.

The California-based company emphasized that the agreement carries no admission of fault, framing the issues as historical practices occurring under previous ownership prior to 2020:

"The settlement includes no findings or admission of liability. While Grindr disputes the allegations, it recognises and acknowledges the distress and loss of trust expressed by some of its UK users regarding that pre-2020 period."

Grindr noted that it has since overhauled its data protection systems "with a keen focus on the unique needs of its community".

"Grindr is and remains a safe space for users, committed to transparency, user control and responsible data practices".

Representing the claimants, Gateley, which is the parent firm of Austen Hays, stated:

"While Grindr disputes the allegations, it recognises and acknowledges the distress and loss of trust expressed by some of its UK users regarding that pre-2020 period. We thank our clients for trusting us with this sensitive case."

Lawyer Chaya Hanoomanjee, who helped lead the claim, had noted earlier in the proceedings that affected users experienced significant distress over the unauthorized sharing of private records, maintaining that the platform "owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to compensate those whose data has been compromised".

The lawsuit builds on concerns first brought to light in 2018 when researchers revealed that Grindr had transmitted user health profile fields to data analytics services Apptimize and Localytics. Grindr subsequently stopped sharing HIV status data with those providers.

The platform has faced earlier regulatory penalties over similar practices:

• Norway Data Protection Authority: Fined Grindr 65 million Norwegian krone (~£4.8M) for violating data protection regulations, a decision upheld by Norway's court of appeal in October 2025. The appellate court noted that claims the app did "'not sell your personal user information to third parties for advertising purposes' is clearly misleading".
• UK Information Commissioner's Office: Issued a formal reprimand in 2022 following an assessment of the company's data handling protocols.

Grindr, originally founded in 2009, was sold in 2020 by Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech to investment group San Vicente Acquisition for $608 million following US national security reviews. The company later went public via a SPAC merger in 2022 and currently maintains an estimated market valuation of $2.65 billion (£1.96 billion).