CLAIM
Grindr breach of privacy
If you used the free version of the app between 2016 and 2020, you may be entitled to up to £10,000 of compensation.
Austen Hays is bringing a claim on behalf of thousands of Grindr users against Grindr for breaching data protection laws.
The claimants allege that Grindr shared users’ personal and sensitive data for profit with third party advertising companies without their consent. You can still join the claim if you have been affected. Your name and details will be treated in total confidence and never disclosed as part of the court proceedings, as the court has granted anonymity to all claimants in this claim.
About the claim
We believe that Grindr may have breached data protection laws. In 2021, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (NDPA) imposed a fine of $6m on Grindr. The NDPA decided that Grindr’s data privacy practices violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
In July 2022, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office issued Grindr with a reprimand after finding that it had infringed the UK GDPR.
Grindr appears to have shared users’ personal data for profit with numerous advertisers for online behavioural marketing purposes, without seeking adequate consent. Some of the data shared with online advertisers may have included highly sensitive personal information such as HIV status, Last Tested Date and whether users used medication such as PrEP.
In the press
Our claim against Grindr has been featured in many publications such as BBC News, Sky News, The Guardian, The Times, and many more. You can see our press coverage here.
Eligibility
If you used the free version of the app between 2016 and 2020 you may be entitled to up to £10,000 of compensation.
How do I join the claim?
Step 1: Complete the questionnaire to check if you are eligible
Step 2: Review and sign our engagement letter
You will then be a client of Austen Hays, signed up to join the claim against Grindr and eligible to receive compensation.
Joining the claim is straightforward, hear what Martyn James, consumer rights expert and campaigner, and co-founder of Birmingham Pride, Phil Oldershaw have to say about how quick and easy it is to sign up to the claim. This two-minute video covers the minimum information we need so you can sign up, and how we will use your data. Watch our video to find out more.
Check your eligibility
If you used the free version of the app between 2016 and 2020 you may be entitled to up to £10,000 of compensation.
Grindr breach of privacy claim FAQs
To comply with UK money laundering and ‘know your client’ requirements, as solicitors we need to confirm your identity to engage you as a client. We use the accredited software KYC360 (Financial Crime and Compliance50 2024; Chartis RiskTech KYC report 2024) to run an initial check to confirm the data we need so you can sign up to the claim. If the claim is successful, before any monies are awarded, you will need to verify your ID, using the ID-Pal App which is a secure and award-winning ID verification application (Merchant Anti-Fraud Solution of the Year 2020; Best Customer Facing Experience 2023). After your identity has been verified, ID-Pal will delete all documents uploaded by you from the app, you can also delete it from your phone. Your ID will be on our claimant portal and only accessible by the Austen Hays legal team.
The High Court has granted an anonymity application for all claimants in our claim against Grindr, ensuring they will all remain anonymous, and their data will be protected throughout the legal proceedings. If you join the claim, your identity will be completely hidden from the public and the Court record. The only exception to this applies to six claimants who voluntarily choose to set aside their anonymity. This is because the claims process requires six claimants to be appointed to a Claimant Committee and their details cannot be anonymous. The role of the Claimant Committee is to make decisions on behalf of the entire claimant group. Joining the committee is voluntary, so those individuals’ details will not be shared unless they clearly agree.
We are seeking compensation on behalf of our clients for distress and any consequence that they may have suffered as a result of loss of control over their data.
Any compensation you may be entitled to will depend on your individual case but at this stage, we estimate that in some cases, you could be entitled to thousands of pounds.
Organisations are responsible for handling customer data correctly and ensuring that customers know how their data is being used. It is unacceptable that users of the popular app had their data shared in a way that does not comply with data protection laws.
There is also the very real possibility that users of the app may have been exposed to the risk of both physical and mental harm through Grindr’s sharing of their personal sensitive data. Grindr users may have assumed that the information submitted to the app was only available to other app users.
Grindr plays an important role in the user community, and it needs to be held accountable and reinstate confidence in the way it treats user data.
Yes. You may still be eligible even if you have stopped using the app or cannot evidence your use of the app between 2016 and 2020, as we anticipate that your use of the app will be confirmed during the course of proceedings.
You can send any queries to enquiries@austenhays.com, where our team will strive to answer all your questions.
Yes, if you know people who may be eligible to join the claim, please let them know as we want to help as many people as possible who may have been affected by Grindr’s actions.
There will be no cost to you in joining the claim. Austen Hays will represent you on a ‘no win no fee’ basis. The costs and risks associated with it are borne by any insurers and funders. This ensures that you can sign up without worrying about the cost of joining the claim. The claim costs would come out of any payout that is secured from the defendant. You are guaranteed at least 52% of the amount awarded to you and Austen Hays’ and funder costs are capped at 48%. Even if the claim is unsuccessful, there will be no cost to you, provided that you fulfil your obligations set out in the documents that you are required to read and agree to, as part of the sign-up process.
Yes. Bringing a claim against Grindr should not affect your rights to continue using the app.
Austen Hays FAQs
For non claim specific FAQs, see Austen Hays' general FAQs.
Timeline of existing findings
Austen Hays’ claim against Grindr is not the first time the dating app has faced scrutiny of, and consequences for, its failure to protect the personal and sensitive data of its users. Here, we provide a summary of the key dates that led to this point.
- 7 Feb 2018 – An experiment on Grindr by SINTEF, a Norwegian non-profit independent research organisation, reveals that Grindr deployed data tracking technologies and shared user data with third parties, including Apptimize and Localytics. Data shared included highly sensitive personal details, such as users’ HIV status and Last Tested Date.
- 2 April 2018 – ‘Plus Granskar’ airs on Swedish TV channel SVT, revealing the results of the SINTEF experiment and the extent of Grindr’s data-sharing activities.
- 3 April 2018 – Grindr announces that it has stopped sharing HIV-related data with third parties, but not with data hosts.
- 14 Jan 2020 – mneumonic, a cybersecurity service provider, publishes a report finding that Grindr shared detailed user data, such as IP addresses, GPS location, age, and gender with a significant number of third parties.
- 13 Dec 2021 – The Norwegian Data Protection Authority publishes its final decision and enforces a record fine of 65,000,000 Norwegian Krone (NOK) against Grindr.
- 26 July 2022 – The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has similar concerns with how Grindr was processing its users’ data. The ICO issues Grindr with a Reprimand regarding processing operations that infringed UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
- 27 Sept 2023 – Grindr’s appeal to the Norwegian Privacy Appeals Board fails.
- Oct 2023 – Grindr sues the Norwegian state, challenging the validity of the Norwegian Privacy Board’s decision.
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22 April 2024 – Austen Hays issued a claim against Grindr in England and Wales stating that Grindr is in breach of UK data protection laws for sharing sensitive data, including ethnicity and HIV status, to third parties for commercial purposes without the users’ consent.
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16 May 2024 – A High Court judge confirmed the importance of protecting the identity of individuals bringing a claim against Grindr, by granting anonymity to all claimants in the England and Wales proceedings.
- 1 Jul 2024 – Grindr loses its challenge against the Norwegian State in the Oslo District Court. The decision to fine Grindr by the Norwegian Data Protection Authority and the Privacy Appeals Board is upheld.