Man jailed for posting friend's personal details on dating app

Aug 22, 2026

A Miaoli court has handed a man a two-month prison sentence for outing a friend's home address and making crude accusations about him on a gay dating app, a warning that online revenge posts carry real criminal risk in Taiwan.

  • After falling out with a friend, a man logged into Grindr and used his profile to insult him and accuse him of gluing his genitals while he slept.
  • He also posted the friend's home address, exposing private information to anyone browsing the app.
  • The friend went to the police, and prosecutors charged him under Taiwan's personal data protection law.
  • The court found the posts were purely private grudge material with no public interest, and gave him two months in prison, convertible to a fine.
  • He admitted the offense but has not been forgiven by the victim, which weighed against him at sentencing.

Outlook: The sentence can be swapped for a fine of NT$60,000, and it reinforces that dating-app profiles count as public speech under Taiwanese privacy law.

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