Has Grindr, the dating app in the LGBT+ world, sold sensitive user data?
Already fined in 2021 for violating the GDPR, the dating app Grindr is now at the center of a class action for having sold the sensitive data of many users to third parties for commercial reasons without consent, also sharing information on potential HIV positivity
Not the best time for dating apps. After years in which they warmed people's hearts, a cold winter has descended which seems to be marking their decline. In addition to the business not going well , Grindr, the most popular dating app in the LGBTQ+ community, has once again been accused of using its users' sensitive data.
THE CLASS ACTION AGAINST GRINDR
Yesterday, a London law firm, representing around 670 people united in a class action, sued Grindr, accused of having sold the sensitive data of many customers to third parties for commercial purposes without consent. If proven, it would mean that the company violated several regulations on the protection of sensitive data.
Among these, says Reuters , there would also be information relating to the potential HIV positivity of users, such as HIV status and the date of the last test.
According to lawyers, the breaches occurred between 2018 and 2020 and could affect thousands of people in the UK.
WHAT GRINDR ANSWERS
According to the news agency, initially, a spokesperson for Grindr said in a statement that it intended to “firmly respond” to the allegations regarding the HIV information, “which appear to be based on a mischaracterization of practices from more than four years ago.” .
The same spokesperson then declared in an updated statement that "Grindr has never shared user health information for 'commercial purposes' and has never monetized such information."
THE FINE FOR VIOLATION OF THE GDPR
However, in 2021 Grindr had already been fined around 6.5 million euros by Norwegian authorities for violating the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by selling user data to advertisers, including GPS location, the IP address, advertising ID, age, gender and the fact that the interested party was on Grindr.
“This was particularly invasive because data on a person's sexual orientation constitutes a special category of data that deserves special protection under GDPR rules,” the Norwegian Data Protection Authority said .
THE PRIOR SHARING OF HEALTH DATA
But the recent accusation leveled at Grindr of illegally sharing its users' health data is not new. In fact, in 2018, the dating app was accused of sharing information relating to the HIV status of its members with Apptimize and Localytics, two companies responsible for testing and optimizing the software.
At the time, according to Grindr, this practice was “industry practice” . A practice to which the spokesperson who spoke now was evidently referring.
The companyhad stated that “it has never sold, nor will it ever sell, users' personal information – particularly information relating to HIV status or date of last test – to third parties or advertisers”. But he also added that since Grindr is a “public forum,” “if you choose to include this information in your profile, the information will also become public.”
At the same time, according to BuzzFeed , the Los Angeles-based dating app announced that it would stop sharing users' HIV status with third-party companies.
GRINDR'S NUMBERS
In the frost that envelops dating apps, Grindr nevertheless recorded "the highest engagement of all dating apps" in May 2023, we read on the BBC , "with people using it for an average time of 6 hours and 49 minutes. minutes".
Trusted by 13 million people every month, around 924,000 are in the UK, according to an Ofcom report last February.
As of April 2024, Grindr has a market value of $1.69 billion .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/grindr-lapp-dincontri-del-mondo-lgbtq-ha-venduto-dati-sensibili-degli-utenti/ on Tue, 23 Apr 2024 09:32:16 +0000.