OkCupid settles FTC case on alleged misuse of its customers’ private knowledge

Match Group and its subsidiary OkCupid has lastly settled a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission that dates again to its alleged sharing of person knowledge again in 2014. In line with the lawsuit, the FTC accused OkCupid of inappropriately sharing personal user data that features pictures and site data with a 3rd get together firm, Clarifai, which affords AI-powered software program for makes use of like facial recognition and content material moderation.

In line with the FTC, OkCupid’s privateness coverage on the time famous that the corporate would not share a person’s private info with others, aside from some instances together with “service suppliers, enterprise companions, different entities inside its household of companies.” Nonetheless, the lawsuit accused OkCupid of sharing three million pictures of its customers to Clarifai, which the FTC claims is a “unrelated third get together” that did not fall underneath the allowed entities. On high of that, the lawsuit alleged that OkCupid did not inform its customers of this knowledge sharing, nor give them an opportunity to decide out.

“Whereas we don’t admit any wrongdoing, we now have settled this matter with the FTC with no financial penalty to resolve a problem from 2014 and transfer ahead,” an OkCupid spokesperson advised Engadget, including that the allegations do not mirror how OkCupid operates right now. “Through the years, we now have additional strengthened our privateness practices and knowledge governance to make sure we meet the expectations of our customers.”

Shifting ahead, the settlement would “completely prohibit” Match Group, which owns OkCupid, and Humor Rainbow, which operates OkCupid, from misrepresenting what sort of private info it collects, the aim for gathering the information and any client selections to forestall knowledge assortment. Even after the 2014 incident, OkCupid was discovered with security flaws that would’ve uncovered person account data however, which have been rapidly patched in 2020.