Grindr will be fined 100 million Norwegian kroner, or about $ 11.7 million, by the Norwegian Data Protection Authority for illegally sharing private information about Grindr users with advertisers. The New York Times.
Last January, the Norwegian Consumer Council filed three complaints against Grindr for sharing personal information, including users’ locations and information about the device they use, with advertisers. (One of the advertisers was MoPub, Twitter’s mobile advertising company.) If the information is linked to an individual, it could possibly indicate the person’s sexual orientation without their consent, and now the Norwegian Data Protection Authority is taking action against Grindr for the practice.
Grindr has until February 15 to comment on the decision of the Norwegian Data Protection Authority.
“We are constantly improving our privacy practices in compliance with evolving privacy laws and regulations, and look forward to engaging in a productive dialogue with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority,” said Bill Shafton, Director of Business and Legal Affairs. The edge.
The app is not very well known for being very confident with the safety of its users. Grindr was caught exposing users’ HIV status to two other companies in April 2018, which the company stopped doing. And with one particularly bad vulnerability, which we wrote about in October, anyone who knows your email address can access your account.
Grindr has a new owner after a US government committee expressed national security concerns about the app – it was sold in March 2020 by its Chinese owners to investor group San Vicente Acquisition.