Norway court upholds data-use fine for dating app Grindr

A Norwegian court on Monday, July 1 upheld a $6 million (P350 million) fine for dating app Grindr after finding it illegally shared users' sensitive data.

The country's data protection agency Datatilsynet had earlier found that Grindr shared personal data with advertisers.

Datatilsynet had issued the 65 million-kroner fine in 2021 over data-sharing between 2018 and 2020.

The data included geographical coordinates and users' ages and sex as well as their status as users of the app, aimed at LGBTQ people.

Datatilsynet had ruled that Grindr gave users insufficient information on its data-sharing practices.

It said the practices violated the European Union's general Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in force since 2018.

Grindr took the case to a court in Oslo, where a judge dismissed its appeal on Monday, in a ruling seen by AFP.

It upheld the judgement that the app company had infringed the GDPR's rules on consent for data-sharing.

It ruled that the data constituted "sensitive" information since it related to sexual orientation.

Norwegian media cited Grindr spokeswoman Kelly Miranda as saying that the company would consider lodging a further appeal. (AFP)