GoKawiilOkCupid and its owner Match Group reached a settlement with the Trump administration for not telling dating-app customers that nearly 3 million user photos, location information, and other details were shared with a company making a facial recognition system.
OkCupid and Match do not have to pay a financial penalty in a deal made with the Federal Trade Commission over an incident from 2014. OkCupid and Match did not admit or deny the allegations but agreed to a permanent prohibition barring them from misrepresenting how they use and share personal data, the FTC said yesterday.
The FTC has been run entirely by Republicans since President Trump fired both Democratic commissioners. The proposed settlement requires approval from a judge and was submitted in US District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
The dating-site company said it’s pleased to settle the matter without paying any fine. “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 said in a statement provided to Ars today. “The alleged conduct at issue does not 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.”
Although a recent court ruling imposes limits on the FTC’s enforcement powers, that ruling applied only to the FTC’s in-house administrative process. The FTC can still pursue deceptive advertising claims in courts and seek financial penalties through court orders or settlements.
FTC: OkCupid imposed no restrictions on data use
The FTC criticized Match and OkCupid for sharing OkCupid data with Clarifai, an AI company that offers facial recognition technology. Clarifai’s website says it offers AI services to “military, civilian, intelligence, and government” customers and to private-sector companies in various industries.