The logo of the social networking application Grindr | Martin Bureau/AFP via Getty Images Grindr, online ad firms face Norwegian privacy complaint The move follows an investigation that looked into how individuals’ data was collected when they used online services.

The Norwegian Consumer Council Tuesday filed complaints against Grindr, the dating app, and four online advertising firms, including one owned by Twitter, for allegedly collecting reams of people's personal information without consent.

The move follows an investigation by a group of data protection campaigners, including the Norwegian Consumer Council, a government-backed consumer protection organization, and None of Your Business (NOYB), a nonprofit organized founded by Max Schrems, the Austrian privacy advocate.

The probes looked into how individuals' data was collected when they used online services like Grindr.

The groups said that these services shared users' personal information, including sensitive data like gender and sexual orientation, with at least 135 third-party companies, which then used the information for digital advertising or online behavioral profiling.

This was in breach of Europe's new privacy standards, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, because the firms did not receive explicit consent from users over how their information would be used by these third-party groups, the group said.

“These practices are out of control and are rife with privacy violations and breaches of European law," Finn Myrstad, director of digital policy at the Norwegian Consumer Council, said in a statement. "The extent of tracking makes it impossible for us to make informed choices about how our personal data is collected, shared and used."

NOYB, the nonprofit group that is based in Vienna, said that it planned to file similar complaints with Austria's data protection regulator over how these digital services also collected and then shared people's personal information with third-party provider.

Representatives for Grindr and Twitter were not immediately available for comment.