Norwegian authorities said on Wednesday that they were fining dating app Grindr more than 65 million kroner for illegally sharing users’ personal data with third parties.
The fine of 65 million Norwegian kroner ($7.2 million, 6.3 million euros) is the largest ever handed out for such a case in the Scandinavian country.
«Our conclusion is that Grindr has disclosed user data to third parties for behavioural advertisement without a legal basis», said Tobias Judin, head of the Norwegian Data Protection Authority’s (DPA) international department to thelocal.no
Grindr, which bills itself as «the world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people», is accused of sharing GPS coordinates, elements of its users’ profiles such as age or sex and the very fact that they use the app, thus giving indications of their sexual orientation.
The lack of clear information about this practice given to users and lack of explicit approval on this point from them violates the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adopted by the European Union in 2018, according to the Norwegian DPA, thelocal.no reports.
