Gay dating app Grindr is facing a major data protection lawsuit in London from hundreds of users who allegedly shared their personal information, including their HIV status, with third parties without their consent, a law firm said Monday.

Austen Hays, who brought the claim at London’s High Court, said thousands of Grindr users in the UK could be affected.

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

In a statement to The Guardian, Grindr said it planned to “respond vigorously to these complaints, which appear to be based on mischaracterizations of practices that occurred more than four years ago.”

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Grindr confirmed it would respond to the complaint.

Austen Hays said about 670 people had signed the lawsuit alleging abuses between 2018 and 2020 and that thousands more could join the case.

Chaya Hanoomanjee, CEO of Austen Hays, said in a statement: “Grindr owes it to the LGBTQ+ community to compensate those whose data was compromised and who suffered distress as a result, and to ensure that all of its users are safe while using the app, wherever they are, without fear that their data will be shared with third parties.”

Grindr did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to The Guardian, a Grindr spokesperson said: “We are committed to protecting our users’ data and comply with all applicable data privacy regulations, including in the UK.”

“We are proud of our global privacy program and take privacy very seriously.”

With information from Reuters

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