Grindr, the world's biggest dating app for the LGBT community, is being sued for allegedly sharing personal information such as people's HIV status with third parties.

According to the claim, lodged at the High Court in London, "covert tracking technology" was deployed, and highly sensitive information was illegally shared with advertisers.

Law firm Austen Hays says there are more than 650 claimants and "thousands" of UK users were affected.

Grindr says it will "respond vigorously" to the claim.

A Grindr spokesperson said the company takes privacy "extremely seriously", and added the claim "appears to be based on a mischaracterization of practices from more than four years ago".

Austen Hays says, if the case is successful, claimants could receive thousands of pounds in damages.

The claim form submitted to the High Court says the law firm hopes to claim more than £100,000 in total.

Chaya Hanoomanjee from Austen Hays, who is the lawyer leading the claim, said the claimants "experienced significant distress over their highly sensitive and private information being shared without their consent".

“Grindr owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to compensate those whose data has been compromised," she said.

The dating app is used by 13 million people every month, and an Ofcom report from May 2023 found that it was used by roughly 924,000 people in the UK.

It also had the highest engagement of all dating apps, with people using it for an average time of six hours and 49 minutes that month.