Sex, drugs and privacy issues on the Internet

Popular dating apps like Grindr and OkCupid share personal data about users, including their location and sexuality, with about 100 other businesses, a Norwegian consumer group said on Tuesday, as it filed a complaint about breach of privacy rules.

The Norwegian Consumer Council found that 10 widely used Android apps that gather sensitive data about health, drug use and sexual preferences passed some of it on to advertising and marketing firms without clearly informing users.

“These practices are out of control and in breach of European data protection legislation,” said Finn Myrstad, director of digital policy for the Norwegian Consumer Council.

“It is impossible for users to control this because the terms and conditions are really long and impossible to understand,” he said.

Tech companies have come under increased scrutiny over data privacy, fuelled by 2018’s Cambridge Analytica scandal in which tens of millions of Facebook profiles were harvested.

EU law now heavily restricts companies’ ability to process and share personal information without consent.