Digital data leeches: trading on our profiles

Everyone has secrets. Things they wouldn't tell just anyone – except, perhaps, their dating app . What sort of partner they're looking for. Where they go to look for them. Their sexual preferences, maybe, or details about their health.

This information is meant to help the app find suitable matches. Selling the details on to other companies is not in the users' interest.

But this is what allegedly happened with Grindr, a dating app explicitly aimed at the LGBTQ+ community. Around 12,000 app users in Britain sued the company, which they said had shared highly sensitive personal information with advertisers — even, in some cases, a user's HIV status.

The lawsuit, filed in 2024, was settled earlier this week. Grindr has agreed to pay the claimants a total of 26 million pounds (€30 million; $35 million) – but stresses that this is not an admission of liability. Grindr continues to dispute the allegations, there has been no legal judgement.

This latest case is just one of many that raise the bigger question of what actually happens to the information we entrust to our apps on a daily basis.

For users, an app is primarily just a helpful product. But they are often supported by cloud services, analysis tools, advertising networks and other service providers. They save and transfer data, link and analyse it — often contrary to our interest.

Jan Penfrat, a digital policy expert, says that many of the big tech companies want to "make it as difficult as possible for users and regulatory authorities to understand what data is gathered on our devices by which players, and for what purpose."

Penfrat works for European Digital Rights (EDRi), a European network of NGOs and experts that campaigns to defend fundamental rights and freedoms in the digital realm.