Grindr 6,500,000€ fine – “Data is not a commodity”

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority imposed a fine of €6,500,000 on Grindr for not collecting users' valid consent for sharing data with third parties for profiling and advertising purposes from the Grindr App.

Particularly interesting is that it is not allowed under GDPR to have a free version of an app with the condition that it shares personal data (in this case for targeting and profiling for ads) as the consent of the user is not freely given in this case - in a "Take it or leave it" situation, consent cannot be seen as freely given.