Dating app Grindr fined £8.5MILLION for selling ‘dangerous’ user data – including location and sexual preferences
DATING app Grindr is facing a staggering £8.5million fine as it's accused of illegally selling personal user data.
The LGBTQ+ app reportedly sold things like location data and sexual preferences of users to advertisers.
Norway’s Data Protection Authority is planning to fine the app's creators 10% of its estimated global revenue for breaking European privacy law.
Grindr has until February 15 to respond.
Earlier this week, a Grindr spokesperson told the it had “valid legal consent from all” of its users in Europe.
The spokesperson also said that Grindr's “approach to user privacy is first in class” compared to other social media apps.
"We’re trying to make these apps and services understand that this approach – not informing users, not gaining a valid consent to share their data – is completely unacceptable."
Norway complies by Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines even though it's not in the EU.
The court case could lead to similar legal battles in other EU countries or in the UK.
The European Centre for Digital rights has said the "consent" Grindr claims it obtained from users was unlawful because users either had to consent to data sharing or pay a subscription fee.
There are concerns Grindr forwarded data to hundreds of third parties.
A Grindr spokesperson told us: "Our goal is to create the leading social and digital media platform that enables the LGBTQ+ community and other users to discover, share and navigate the world around them.
"Grindr is confident that our approach to user privacy is first-in-class among social applications with detailed consent flows, transparency, and control provided to all of our users.
"For example, Grindr has retained valid legal consent from ALL of our EEA users on multiple occasions.
"We most recently required all users to provide consent (again) in late 2020 to align with the GDPR Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) version 2 which was developed by the IAB EU in consultation with the UK ICO.
"The allegations from the Norwegian Data Protection Authority date back to 2018 and do not reflect Grindr's current Privacy Policy or practices.
"We continually enhance our privacy practices in consideration of evolving privacy laws and regulations, and look forward to entering into a productive dialogue with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority."
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