LONDON – Gay dating app Grindr is facing a mass data protection lawsuit in London from hundreds of users who allegedly had their private information, including HIV status, shared with third parties without consent, a law firm said on April 22.

The law firm, Austen Hays, said thousands of Grindr users in the United Kingdom may have been affected. The lawsuit is being filed at London’s High Court.

The firm alleges that users’ highly sensitive information, including HIV status and the date of their latest HIV test, was provided to third parties for commercial purposes.

A spokesperson for Grindr initially said in a statement that it planned to “respond vigorously to this claim, which appears to be based on a mischaracterisation of practices from more than four years ago”.

The spokesperson later said in an updated statement: “Grindr has never shared user-reported health information for ‘commercial purposes’ and has never monetised such information.”

Austen Hays said that around 670 people had signed up to the lawsuit over breaches, said to have taken place between 2018 and 2020, with potentially thousands more joining the case.

“Grindr owes it to the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community it serves to compensate those whose data has been compromised and have suffered distress as a result,” Austen Hays managing director Chaya Hanoomanjee said in a statement.

The company must “ensure all its users are safe while using the app, wherever they are, without fear that their data might be shared with third parties”, Ms Hanoomanjee said.

Grindr’s spokesperson said: “We are committed to protecting our users’ data and complying with all applicable data privacy regulations, including in the UK.” REUTERS