Norway fines Microsoft's Xandr $9.6 million over Grindr data

Norway's data protection authority, Datatilsynet, announced on October 12, 2026, an administrative fine of 92 million Norwegian kroner against Xandr Inc., an advertising business owned by Microsoft. The penalty equals approximately 9.6 million dollars or 8.5 million euros.

The 54-page regulatory decision, formally dated October 2, 2026, found that Xandr carried out unlawful processing of sensitive user data received from the dating application Grindr. The agency examined an unlawful data processing period lasting 627 days between July 20, 2018, and April 7, 2020.

The final ruling concluded 2,453 days after the initial complaint was lodged on January 14, 2020. The authority noted that the protracted timeline led to a reduction in the ultimate financial penalty. Xandr has been given a three-week window to lodge an appeal against the decision.

The probe traces back to earlier scrutiny of Grindr itself, which faced an initial proposed penalty of 100 million Norwegian kroner from Datatilsynet in January 2021 before the regulator imposed a final 65 million Norwegian kroner fine in December 2021. Microsoft acquired Xandr in June 2022 in a transaction valued at 1 billion dollars.