- The FTC reached a proposed settlement with the operators of OkCupid to resolve allegations that the dating app violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by sharing users’ personal information with a third-party AI company despite promising otherwise in its privacy policy.
- According to the complaint, OkCupid gave Clarifai — an AI company in which two of OkCupid’s founders were financially invested — access to millions of users’ data, including nearly three million user photos plus demographic and location information, without notice to the consumers or an opportunity to opt out.
- The FTC alleges Clarifai was not a service provider, business partner, or affiliate permitted under OkCupid’s privacy policy, and that OkCupid operators later took extensive steps to conceal and deny the sharing.
- The proposed settlement would bar the defendant companies from misrepresenting their privacy practices and impose 10 years of compliance reporting, FTC monitoring, and recordkeeping obligations.