Tinder collects highly sensitive personal information including your sexual orientation and HIV status, which are special category data under privacy law, and uses this to match you with other users.
Tinder collects and processes your sexual orientation and HIV status — two of the most sensitive personal data categories under global privacy law — and if this data is breached or shared beyond your expectation, it could cause severe real-world harm including discrimination or violence.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Sensitive Personal Data Collection — Sexual Orientation and HIV Status and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →Sexual orientation and health data are among the most sensitive personal data categories, subject to heightened legal protections — their collection and processing by a commercial platform creates serious privacy and security risks if breached or misused.
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision directly implicates GDPR Art. 9, which prohibits processing of special category data (health data and data concerning sexual orientation) without explicit, freely given consent under Art. 9(2)(a), or another specified exception; the Irish DPC is the lead supervisory authority. UK GDPR Schedule 1 contains equivalent special category provisions enforced by the ICO. California's CPRA (Cal. Civ. Code §1798.121) designates sexual orientation and health information as 'sensitive personal information' subject to enhanced rights and a right to limit use. HIPAA does not apply as Tinder is not a covered entity, but state health privacy laws (e.g., California's Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, Cal. Health & Safety Code §56 et seq.) may be implicated for HIV status data.
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