this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2024
338 points (98.3% liked)

Technology

59405 readers
2612 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
338
Lawsuit alleges Grindr illegally shared users' HIV status, sensitive data with third-party advertisers. (www.theregister.com)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hundreds have joined a UK class action lawsuit against LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr, seeking damages over a historical case of the company allegedly forwarding users' HIV status as well as other sensitive data to third-party advertisers.

This data included a user's HIV status and their last test date, their sexual preferences, and their GPS location – all of which were added to public profiles by users and later gathered up by Grindr's trackers.

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority (NO DPA) fined Grindr 65 million Norwegian kroner in 2020 ($5.9 million at today's exchange rate) for violating GDPR's consent rules. NO DPA's case didn't mention any violations regarding the sharing of HIV data or information about a user's sexual preferences. However, it ruled that third parties had received a user's GPS location, IP address, advertising ID, age, gender, and the fact that they used the app, and concluded that Grindr had disclosed user data to third parties "for behavioural advertisement without a legal basis."

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said in October last year it was pushing for the FTC to probe the app maker after finding that it was retaining user data even after accounts were deleted – a practice Grindr's privacy policy explicitly says it wouldn't do.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Hundreds have joined a UK class action lawsuit against LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr, seeking damages over a historical case of the company allegedly forwarding users' HIV status as well as other sensitive data to third-party advertisers.

A total of 670 individuals have joined the class action, filed today in England's High Court, and lawyers Austen Hays believe the number could rise into the thousands.

The discovery that the data may have been shared with analytics firms led to heavy criticism of the app maker, which at the time didn't apologize for its alleged role in the furor, but did alter its privacy policy soon after.

Its then-CTO Scott Chen said Grindr would never sell the kind of sensitive data researchers specified to third parties, and reminded users that any information they themselves added to their profile would become public.

In addition to the claim brought to Grindr in the UK, the company is also facing flak in the US, as recently as October 2023, again for alleged data protection failings.

Chaya Hanoomanjee, managing director at Austen Hays and the lawyer leading the UK claim, said: "Our clients have experienced significant distress over their highly sensitive and private information being shared without their consent, and many have suffered feelings of fear, embarrassment, and anxiety as a result.

The original article contains 848 words, the summary contains 216 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!