LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) - Gay dating app Grindr ( GRND )

is facing a mass data protection lawsuit in London from

hundreds of users who allegedly had their private information,

including HIV status, shared with third parties without consent,

a law firm said on Monday.

Austen Hayes, which said the lawsuit is being filed at

London's High Court, said thousands of Grindr ( GRND ) users in the

United Kingdom may have been affected.

The firm alleges users' highly sensitive information,

including HIV status and the date of their latest HIV test, were

provided to third parties for commercial purposes.

Grindr ( GRND ) said in a statement provided to the Guardian that it

planned to "respond vigorously to this claim, which appears to

be based on a mischaracterisation of practices from more than

four years ago".

Austen Hayes said around 670 people had signed up to the

lawsuit over breaches said to have taken place between 2018 and

2020, with potentially thousands more joining the case.

Austen Hays' Managing Director Chaya Hanoomanjee said in a

statement: "Grindr ( GRND ) owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to

compensate those whose data has been compromised and have

suffered distress as a result, and to ensure all its users are

safe while using the app, wherever they are, without fear that

their data might be shared with third parties."

Grindr ( GRND ) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Guardian reported a Grindr ( GRND ) spokesperson as stating: "We are

committed to protecting our users data and complying with all

applicable data privacy regulations, including in the UK.

"We are proud of our global privacy program and take privacy

extremely seriously."