Grindr Getting Sued for Sharing HIV Status

Grindr Getting Sued for Sharing HIV Status

We know it takes a lot to get the British riled up. Well, Grindr is in trouble overseas! In a class action suit filed by law firm Austen Hays in the High Court of Justice in London, the hookup app is in trouble for allegedly sharing the personal data, including HIV status, of users with third parties. This affects thousands of users in the UK, with 670 signing the lawsuit.

The suit maintains that from 2018 to 2020, Grindr violated the U.K.’s data protection laws and shared personal data that includes HIV, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. This information was potentially sold to major advertising firms to target ads for products and services that target a specific community. In a double oops, these firms may have sold that info to fourth parties.

Users signing the lawsuit claim they are suffering from anxiety, stress, and embarrassment. Can you imagine if someone was out with their sexuality or HIV status? Austen Hays sent out a press release:

"Grindr owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to compensate those whose data has been compromised and have suffered distress as a result, and to ensure all its users are safe while using the app, wherever they are, without fear that their data might be shared with third parties."

 

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Grindr has denied the breach to Forbes and a number of other media outlets saying that they have never released health-related info nor have they ever earned money for such sharing. This isn't the first time Grindr was been in trouble regarding data sharing. They were fined $7 million dollars by Norway for data sharing, and an ex-executive is suing Grindr in California for being fired for bringing up concerns regarding the company's data sharing practices.

This just hasn't been a good period of time for Grindr, financially or press-wise. They seem to be climbing out of their financial hole, but issues like this aren't helping their cause. We reported earlier this month that the site has a number of plans to make the app more community-focused rather than hookup-focused, and may be implementing AI elements and subscriber fee changes. The had a very public employee shake-up when they demanded workers report to physical offices after it was announced that employees were looking to unionize. Workers who had worked remotely were told they had to relocate to cities that had physical offices. The company ended up paying $8 million in severance packages for lost employees.

Will Grindr be able to recover from all of this? It still is considered the go-to gay hookup app and has even made a presence in mainstream media and pop culture.

Would you join a class action suit against Grindr?

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