Home / Crime and Justice / FTC Penalizes OkCupid Over Secret User Photo Sharing
FTC Penalizes OkCupid Over Secret User Photo Sharing
21 Apr
Summary
- Clarifai deleted 3 million photos obtained from OkCupid.
- OkCupid shared user data in violation of its own policies.
- FTC investigation began in 2019 after a New York Times article.
An artificial intelligence platform, Clarifai, recently deleted approximately 3 million photos that were allegedly obtained from OkCupid. These images were reportedly used to train Clarifai's facial recognition artificial intelligence. The company also removed any AI models that had been trained using this data.
The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) investigation, which commenced in 2019, revealed that Clarifai had requested data from OkCupid in 2014. OkCupid, whose executives had invested in Clarifai, then provided user-uploaded photos, along with demographic and location data. This action appears to have contravened OkCupid's own privacy policies.
While the incident occurred years ago, the FTC's inquiry was prompted by a New York Times article in 2019 that highlighted Clarifai's use of OkCupid images. The FTC alleged that Match Group and OkCupid deliberately concealed this data-sharing practice and attempted to obstruct the investigation.
OkCupid and Match Group recently settled with the FTC. Although they have not admitted to violating their privacy policies, Clarifai's confirmation of data deletion supports the FTC's claims. The settlement prohibits OkCupid and Match Group from misrepresenting their data collection and sharing practices in the future.
