Priest sues Grindr for data breach, seeks £4 million in damages

Jeffrey Burrill, a priest from Wisconsin, has sued the Grindr app for selling his data without consent. The disclosure of information about his use of the dating app cost him his job and ruined his reputation. Burrill is seeking £4 million in damages.

The priest from Wisconsin, Jeffrey Burrill, who lost his job after he disclosed using the Grindr dating app, decided to sue the app. Burrill claims that the data was sold without his knowledge and consent, leading to the disclosure of private information.

Jeffrey Burrill, who served as the chief administrator of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) until 2021, accuses Grindr of not informing users about selling their data to third-party providers. This practice allowed people outside the app to discover his usage.

The disclosure of Burrill's data caused "significant harm" to his reputation, which is particularly painful, considering his vow of celibacy and the Catholic Church's stance on homosexual relationships.

In 2021, the former priest was forced to resign from his position in the Church after the Christian website "The Pillar" published an article that revealed he visited gay bars and used Grindr. The article was based on data obtained from the app.

In the lawsuit, Burrill claims that this data was provided to "The Pillar" by the organisation Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal (CLCR), which bought data from dating apps to track clerics breaking their vows. Burrill suggests that Grindr sold this data to the organisation.

The former priest emphasised that he would never have joined the app if he had known his data would be available to others.

Burrill, who is still "trying to get back on his feet" after the "shame and embarrassment" associated with the disclosure of his orientation, has demanded £4 million in damages from Grindr. The company refused to pay, so Burrill filed a lawsuit, seeking compensation and implementing a policy preventing user data from being shared without their knowledge.

Grindr announced it would respond to these allegations based on a "misrepresentation of user data practices." The company previously denied that it shared user data publicly.

The CLCR organisation admitted that it had, in the past, obtained data from Grindr to expose clergy members but claimed it did not pass any data to "The Pillar". The disclosure of Burrill sparked broad criticism, with many people criticising the website's actions as dangerously homophobic.