Grindr did not respond immediately to an email request for comment from the AP.
“Users were not able to exercise real and effective control over the sharing of their data.' “The Norwegian Data Protection Authority considers that this is a serious case,' said Bjorn Erik Thon, the authority's director-general. The data included GPS location, user profile information and even the fact that users are on Grindr, which could reveal their sexual orientation and therefore merit special protection. The watchdog came to the preliminary conclusion that Grindr shared user data with a number of third parties without legal basis. The council had detailed in a report last year how Grindr and five partner companies in the online ad industry collect personal data to use for targeted advertising in ways that the council said violated the EU's tough GDPR privacy rules. The Data Protection Authority took action following a complaint by the country's Consumer Council alleging that personal data was shared unlawfully for marketing purposes.
Norwegian's data privacy watchdog said Tuesday that it notified the company of its draft decision to issue a fine for 100 million Norwegian krone, equal to 10% of its annual global revenue. Norway is fining gay dating app Grindr $11.7 million for failing to get consent from users before sharing their personal information with advertising companies, in breach of stringent European Union privacy rules.
