COPENHAGEN
Norway’s data privacy watchdog on Wednesday fined gay dating app Grindr 65 million kroner ($7.16 million) for sending sensitive personal data to hundreds of potential advertising partners without users’ consent — a breach of strict European Union privacy rules.

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority said it imposed its highest fine to date because the California-based company didn’t comply with the EU’s tough data protection regulations. Norway isn’t a member of the 27-nation bloc but closely mirrors the rules of the European Union.

In 2020, Norway’s Consumer Council filed a complaint against Grindr for disclosing information about its users, including GPS locations, IP addresses, ages, gender and their use of the app, to several third parties for marketing purposes. That allowed users to be identified and third parties to potentially share personal information further.

The data privacy watchdog said users “were forced to accept the privacy policy in its entirety to use the app” and were not asked specifically if they wanted to allow their data to be shared with third parties “for behavioral advertisement.”