Grindr’s default settings allow it to use users’ profile data to train its artificial intelligence technology, gAI, journalist Ronan Farrow reports in an investigative series examining how companies collect and use people’s data.
Under CEO George Arison, Grindr has aggressively integrated gAI (pronounced “gay-eye”) into its app. The technology powers Edge, a premium subscription service that Grindr has tested at prices as high as $499.99 per month.
In his video investigation, posted to X and Instagram, Farrow reports that Grindr needs users’ explicit permission to train gAI on “special-category” data — including gender, sexual preferences and orientation, racial and ethnic origin, chat content, and precise location.
But the company doesn’t ask permission to use so-called “limited data,” including users’ photos, ages, taps, and display names, to train gAI.
Training AI involves using data to help a system learn patterns so it can perform tasks or make predictions. Grindr says gAI is intended to personalize the user experience, summarize chats, recommend potential matches, and support platform safety.
Grindr acknowledges on its website that its default settings allow limited data to be used to train gAI. Users can opt out by changing their privacy settings in the app.
Farrow cites dozens of studies showing that most people keep apps’ default settings, then demonstrates how to turn off the data-use options in Grindr’s privacy settings, noting that all toggles must be set to “off.” He cautions that opting out applies only to future use of users’ data.
Farrow also details Grindr’s history of privacy controversies.
In September, Grindr agreed to pay £26 million — about $35 million — to settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of users in the United Kingdom who claimed the company had shared sensitive personal information, including some users’ HIV statuses, with advertising companies between May 2018 and April 2020.
In 2021, Norway’s data protection authority fined Grindr 65 million Norwegian kroner — about $6 million at the time — for violating the country’s data protection rules. Grindr appealed, but a Norwegian appeals court upheld the fine in October 2025, concluding that the company’s claim that it did not sell users’ personal information to third parties for advertising purposes was “clearly misleading.”
Farrow also warned that data breaches or unauthorized access could endanger users in countries that criminalize homosexuality and same-sex relations.
In a statement to Queerty, a Grindr spokesperson said: “Privacy and discretion are fundamental to Grindr, and we provide our users meaningful control over how their data is used.”
The spokesperson continued: “Our AI features are designed to help users make better connections, and they can opt-out at any time of having their information used for AI-powered features and AI training. More details are available to Grindr users in the in-app Safety and Privacy Center, Privacy Policy, and AI explainer.”
Commenters on Farrow’s Instagram video expressed anger over Grindr’s use of their data to train AI.
“This is important and why we also need to learn to cruise analog!” wrote one Instagram user.
Perry Street Software, the company behind gay apps Scruff and Jack’d, has acquired Growlr, a popular app for bears and their admirers, from The Meet Group.
The Meet Group bought Growlr from its founder, Coley Cummiskey, for $11.8 million in 2019 — nine years after the app launched — with an additional $2 million tied to revenue targets.
At the time, Growlr had more than 200,000 daily active users and was expected to generate around $5.3 million in annual revenue, according to Global Dating Insights. It now serves close to half a million daily users.
According to a press release, Perry Street Software plans a multi-million-dollar, multi-year investment to rebuild the app, modernize its design, and expand its presence in the bear community.
California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton launched an AI-generated ad attacking his Democratic rival — former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra — over transgender athletes in sports.
Hilton seeks to paint Becerra as out of step with California voters by accusing him of “extremism” for opposing blanket bans on transgender women and girls competing on female-designated sports teams.
The ad features a hulking adult “trans” soccer player with a mustache colliding with teenage female players as one of the girls’ fathers watches helplessly.
Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million — or about $35 million — to settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of users in the United Kingdom who allege that the U.S.-based gay dating app shared highly sensitive personal information, including some users’ HIV statuses, with advertising companies.
The settlement ends a legal battle that began when the U.K. law firm Austen Hays filed a claim in the High Court of England and Wales in April 2024, accusing Grindr of violating U.K. privacy laws. The lawsuit alleged that Grindr improperly shared users’ personal information mainly before April 3, 2018, and between May 25, 2018, and April 7, 2020.
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