TikTok unlawfully tracks your shopping habits – and your use of dating apps
By Kleanthi Sardeli and Lisa Steinfeld
A user discovered TikTok knew he had used the gay dating app Grindr and what he did there, data likely passed via AppsFlyer, an intermediary. TikTok also gave only an incomplete, hard-to-parse response to his GDPR access request across multiple attempts. noyb argues neither AppsFlyer nor Grindr had a valid legal basis under Article 6(1) or Article 9(1) GDPR to share this special-category data with TikTok.
Executive summary
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noyb, on behalf of an individual complainant, filed two GDPR complaints with the Austrian data protection authority on 9 December 2025 (published 17 December 2025): one against TikTok alone over an incomplete data access request response, and one against TikTok, AppsFlyer and Grindr jointly over undisclosed cross-app tracking that revealed the complainant’s use of Grindr, a gay dating app. The complaints allege violations of GDPR Articles 6(1), 9(1), 12 and 15. noyb is asking the DPA to order full disclosure of the complainant’s data, force the companies to stop the unlawful processing, and impose fines under Article 83 GDPR.
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