80% of dating apps sell user data to third parties including sensitive preferences

Approximately 80% of dating apps share or sell user data to third-party advertisers and data brokers. This data includes sexual orientation, HIV status, drug use, political views, religious beliefs, and kink preferences, as documented by Mozilla's Privacy Not Included project and a 2025 Privacy Guides investigation into queer dating apps. Grindr was fined 65 million NOK (~$6.5M) by Norway's data protection authority for sharing user HIV status and sexual orientation with advertisers. This matters because dating app data is uniquely intimate: unlike browsing history or purchase data, it reveals information that can be used for blackmail, employment discrimination, or targeting in countries where homosexuality is criminalized. Users share this data expecting it stays between them and potential matches, not realizing it flows to dozens of third parties. The structural reason is that free and freemium dating apps depend on advertising revenue, and intimate preference data commands premium CPMs from advertisers because it enables hyper-targeted campaigns, creating a direct financial incentive to sell the most sensitive data users generate anywhere online.