Grindr will pay $35.2 million (26 million pounds) to settle a privacy case brought on behalf of users in the United Kingdom.
Grindr disclosed the settlement in a Sept. 4 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The case concerns the dating app’s data practices before 2020.
Austen Hays brought the claim in England and Wales in April 2024. It alleged that Grindr disclosed sensitive user data to third parties without proper consent. That included information related to ethnicity, HIV status and HIV testing.
Grindr disputed the allegations.
The company will make two payments of 13 million pounds. The first is due Dec. 31, 2026, and the second is due March 31, 2027. Grindr valued each payment at approximately $17.6 million using the Sept. 3 exchange rate.
The settlement includes no findings or admission of liability and does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing.
The claim focused on practices from before 2020, when Grindr was owned and controlled by Chinese conglomerate Kunlun. Grindr changed owners in 2020 and went public in 2022.
The company says it has since overhauled its privacy program. When the claim was filed, Grindr denied sharing users’ health data with advertisers. It also said some of its earlier data practices had been mischaracterized.
The settlement ends the claim without a court deciding whether the allegations were proved.
Update, Sept. 10: Austen Hays now says approximately 12,000 Grindr users are represented in the claim. The deadline to join has closed. The firm handled the case on a no-win, no-fee basis and says participants will receive at least 52% of any amount awarded after legal and insurance costs.
