FTC Settles with Match Group Over OkCupid Data Sharing

The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement on Wednesday with Match Group and its subsidiary OkCupid over allegations that the dating platform shared personal data from nearly three million users with a third-party artificial intelligence company in 2014, without user notification or consent options.

The FTC accused OkCupid of providing Clarifai, a firm specializing in facial recognition technology, with access to user photos, location information, and demographic details. According to the agency's complaint, this sharing violated OkCupid's privacy policy, which at the time stated that personal information would not be disclosed to third parties except for service providers, business partners, or affiliated entities. The FTC described Clarifai as an unrelated third party with no formal business relationship to OkCupid, despite investments from OkCupid's founders in the AI company. Regulators further alleged that OkCupid took steps to conceal the data transfers and obstructed the investigation when inquiries arose.

Under the proposed agreement, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Match Group and OkCupid neither admitted nor denied the...