Every time you open a free app, details about you can end up with thousands of advertisers.
Datatilsynet, Norway's data protection authority, has fined Xandr, now part of Microsoft, 92 million kroner. It is the authority's largest fine ever. From 2018 to 2020, Xandr received data about users of the dating app Grindr. The data could reveal sexual orientation and was passed on to thousands of advertisers.
This happens in automated ad auctions. The same detail can go to buyer after buyer, and it never gets used up. You notice nothing. That is why such data is so profitable for the middlemen.
Xandr argued that Grindr had taken care of consent. Datatilsynet disagreed, because whoever receives the data is responsible too. And it does not take much. An ad ID or IP address plus the app's name can reveal something very private about you.
You got nothing for your data. Now Norway has at least put a price on its misuse.
DARA covers the participation economy: who creates the value of data, and who gets it. If you have an experience or a story we should look into, send us a message.
Source: Datalawgy, 13. oktober 2026; Global Dating Insights, 12. oktober 2026
All our sources are collected in the DARA Source Library.