How Big Tech Turns Personal Data Into Commercial Profiles

About 12,000 UK users of dating app Grindr have settled a lawsuit for £26 million over allegations that highly sensitive personal information was shared with advertisers, including, in some cases, HIV status. Grindr disputes the allegations, and the settlement was not an admission of liability. No legal judgment has established the claims.

The Deutsche Welle investigation places the case within a broader examination of how apps and technology companies collect, link and analyse user information. Data may be handled by cloud services, analytics providers, advertising networks and other third parties, creating profiles that combine information users provide with details inferred from their behaviour.

Those inferences can include a user’s likely home address, income or sexual orientation, based on location data and patterns of activity. Jan Penfrat of European Digital Rights said the practices of major technology companies were often difficult for users and regulators to understand.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act provide a framework for controlling the use of personal data and the market power of large platforms. The European Commission has also imposed fines on Apple, Meta and Google for alleged regulatory breaches.

The report questions whether such penalties provide an effective deterrent. It cites fines of €500 million for Apple and €200 million for Meta in 2025, and €890 million for Google this year, against Alphabet’s reported 2025 net profit of about €117 billion.

The investigation also highlights Europe’s dependence on largely US-provided cloud, platform, operating-system and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Penfrat argues that limited political will and under-resourced data protection authorities continue to constrain stronger enforcement.