Grindr resolves UK privacy action with £26m payment

Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million to resolve a UK group action brought by thousands of users who alleged the dating platform unlawfully processed sensitive personal information and misused private data before 2020.

The settlement, reached on September 2 and disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, ends proceedings in the High Court of England and Wales without any finding or admission of liability. Grindr continues to dispute the allegations but said it recognised the distress and loss of trust expressed by some UK users over practices from the period covered by the claims.

Grindr said it “recognises and acknowledges the distress and loss of trust” expressed by some users regarding the pre-2020 period. It said its privacy programme had been rebuilt around the needs of its community and described the service as committed to transparency and user control. The company stressed that the agreement should not be interpreted as acceptance of the underlying claims.

Under the agreement, Grindr will make two payments of £13 million. The first is due by December 31, 2026, and the second by March 31, 2027. Using the exchange rate cited by the company on September 3, each instalment is worth about $17.6 million, putting the total settlement at approximately $35.2 million.

The litigation was originally issued in April 2024 and served on Grindr in April 2025. Company filings said the first action was brought on behalf of 10,080 alleged users from a period between 2009 and 2020, claiming unlawful processing of personal data under UK data protection law and misuse of private information. The number in that first claim was later reduced to 10,041 because of discontinued and duplicate claims.

A second claim was subsequently brought on behalf of 1,964 alleged users, according to Grindr’s regulatory filings, taking the number represented across the two proceedings to about 12,000. The claims centred on allegations that information shared through the app, including highly sensitive health-related data in some cases, was passed to third parties without valid consent.

Claimants alleged that the information could include HIV status, dates of HIV tests, use of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, and other profile data. Grindr has denied that it shared users’ health information with advertisers and has maintained that the litigation mischaracterised its former data-handling practices.

The company said the settlement concerns practices before early 2020, when Grindr was owned and controlled by Chinese conglomerate Kunlun. Grindr was sold to new owners in 2020, installed new management and later became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Grindr said it has overhauled its privacy programme since the ownership change, with greater emphasis on transparency, user control and management of sensitive data. The company said its present policies differ substantially from those at issue in the litigation and that it remains committed to responsible data practices.

The UK action follows years of regulatory scrutiny over how dating and social networking services handle personal information, particularly data capable of revealing a user’s health, sexuality or precise location. Such information can fall within categories receiving heightened protection under data-protection law because misuse may expose individuals to discrimination, stigma or other harm.

Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office reprimanded Grindr in 2022 after examining its handling of UK users’ data from June 2020 onwards. The regulator found that the company had failed to provide sufficiently effective and transparent privacy information about aspects of its processing, including the legal bases described for sharing data with advertising partners.

That regulatory action covered a later period than the practices at the centre of the settled group litigation and did not determine the allegations made by the claimants in the High Court case. The £26 million agreement therefore resolves the civil claims without a judicial ruling on whether Grindr breached UK privacy law during the years alleged.

The settlement also removes a material legal uncertainty that Grindr had been disclosing to investors. Earlier filings described the outcome as too early to determine while the proceedings continued against Grindr LLC, the company’s operating subsidiary.