Match Group and its subsidiary OkCupid has finally settled a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission that dates back to its alleged sharing of user data back in 2014. According to the lawsuit, the FTC accused OkCupid of inappropriately sharing personal user data that includes photos and location info with a third party company, Clarifai, which offers AI-powered software for uses like facial recognition and content moderation.
According to the FTC, OkCupid’s privacy policy at the time noted that the company wouldn’t share a user’s personal information with others, except for some cases including “service providers, business partners, other entities within its family of businesses.” However, the lawsuit accused OkCupid of sharing three million photos of its users to Clarifai, which the FTC claims is a “unrelated third party” that didn’t fall under the allowed entities. On top of that, the lawsuit alleged that OkCupid didn’t inform its users of this data sharing, nor give them a chance to opt out.
“While we do not admit any wrongdoing, we have settled this matter with the FTC with no monetary penalty to resolve an issue from 2014 and move forward,” an OkCupid spokesperson told Tech Reader, adding that the allegations don’t reflect how OkCupid operates today. “Over the years, we have further strengthened our privacy practices and data governance to ensure we meet the expectations of our users.”
Moving forward, the settlement would “permanently prohibit” Match Group, which owns OkCupid, and Humor Rainbow, which operates OkCupid, from misrepresenting what kind of personal information it collects, the purpose for collecting the data and any consumer choices to prevent data collection. Even after the 2014 incident, OkCupid was found with security flaws that could’ve exposed user account info but, which were quickly patched in 2020.
