{"id":1855999,"date":"2026-03-30T17:52:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1855999"},"modified":"2026-03-30T17:52:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:52:00","slug":"okcupid-settles-ftc-case-on-alleged-misuse-of-its-users-personal-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1855999","title":{"rendered":"OkCupid settles FTC case on alleged misuse of its users&#8217; personal data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/6imrxaBWe0k9Wd72C5LBUg&#8211;\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MDA-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2026-03\/6e0380a0-2c5d-11f1-99fb-b54481eafde9&#8243;]<\/p>\n<article id=\"article-541e2020-521d-4ba0-9de4-4c3d66ecf718\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"mx-auto flex flex-row justify-between md:px-10 md:max-w-[1220px]\">\n<div class=\"min-w-0 flex-1 self-start\" data-i13n-boundary=\"true\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<nav class=\"relative mx-4 mb-4 border-b pb-4 md:mx-0 md:mb-6 md:max-w-[750px] md:pb-6\" aria-label=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<ol class=\"no-scrollbar overflow-scroll whitespace-nowrap text-battleship\">\n<li class=\"inline\">\n<li class=\"inline-block cursor-default last:pr-10 md:last:pr-20 font-bold\">Cybersecurity<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/nav>\n<header class=\"mb-4 px-4 md:mb-6 md:max-w-[750px] md:px-0\">\n<h1 class=\"layout-h1 my-2 font-bold leading-tight\">OkCupid settles FTC case on alleged misuse of its users&#8217; personal data<\/h1>\n<h2 class=\"rightrail-h2-subheadline my-2 text-[18px] font-light leading-5 md:text-[20px]\/[28px]\">OkCupid denied any wrongdoing and said it strengthened its privacy practices over the years.<\/h2>\n<div class=\"flex-col items-start lg:flex lg:flex-row lg:items-center lg:justify-between mt-6\">\n<div class=\"relative md:mr-[10px]\">\n<div class=\"flex items-center\">\n<div class=\"flex mr-2\">\n<div class=\"shrink-0 cursor-pointer inline-block size-[42px]\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt role=\"img\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full rounded-full object-cover object-center shadow-[0_0_0_2px_#ffffff]\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/5wG_nb5lcFryw4S0p6PmCQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTgwO2g9ODA-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2025-04\/d17438b0-21fe-11f0-bbad-afcc7524fc27\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-block\">\n<div class=\"w-max text-[0.875rem]\/[1.25rem] font-semibold flex items-center\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col\">\n<div class=\"flex w-max items-center\">Jackson Chen<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"font-normal sm:before:inline-block\">Contributing reporter<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-[0.75rem] text-dolphin dark:text-shark md:text-[0.875rem]\/[1.25rem] lg:pt-[5px]\">\n<div class=\"inline-block\"><span class=\"mr-1 hidden lg:inline\">Updated<\/span><time datetime=\"2026-03-30T17:52:00.000Z\">Mon, March 30, 2026 at 5:52 PM UTC<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ml-0 mt-4 flex items-center lg:ml-3 lg:mt-0\">\n<div class=\"ml-0 mr-2\">\n<div class=\"relative flex\">Add Engadget on Google<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"mx-4 md:mx-0\">\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-[[fullbleed-start_body-start]_minmax(auto,750px)_[body-end_fullbleed-end]]\">\n<figure class=\"relative col-body mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative overflow-hidden fig-image-round \"><img decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"object-cover object-center\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/GRUUzmThS6_uPhq4QSjpmg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI7aD04Mjg-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2026-03\/6e0380a0-2c5d-11f1-99fb-b54481eafde9\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-[0.875rem]\/[1.25rem] figure-caption mt-1 line-clamp-2 mt-2.5 md:mt-2 pr-2.5\">\n<div><span>OkCupid<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-article-mobile md:max-w-[750px] md:grid-cols-article\" data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">According to the FTC, OkCupid&#8217;s privacy policy at the time noted that the company wouldn&#8217;t share a user&#8217;s personal information with others, except for some cases including &#8220;service providers, business partners, other entities within its family of businesses.&#8221; However, the lawsuit accused OkCupid of sharing three million photos of its users to Clarifai, which the FTC claims is a &#8220;unrelated third party&#8221; that didn&#8217;t fall under the allowed entities. On top of that, the lawsuit alleged that OkCupid didn&#8217;t inform its users of this data sharing, nor give them a chance to opt out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">&#8220;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,&#8221; an OkCupid spokesperson told Engadget, adding that the allegations don&#8217;t reflect how OkCupid operates today. &#8220;Over the years, we have further strengthened our privacy practices and data governance to ensure we meet the expectations of our users.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"col-fullbleed mb-4 bg-marshmallow pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_dgb7b4ilfaiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-body mb-4 hidden pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:block\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_lgb7b4ilfaiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Moving forward, the settlement would &#8220;permanently prohibit&#8221; 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&#8217;ve exposed user account info but, which were quickly patched in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"hidden flex-none md:block ml-8\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full flex-col flex-nowrap\">\n<div class=\"flex-auto\">\n<div class=\"sticky flex flex-none\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_sj7b4ilfaiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mx-auto md:px-10 md:max-w-[1220px]\">\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-article-mobile md:max-w-[750px] md:grid-cols-article\">\n<div class=\"no-scrollbar col-body mx-4 mb-8 mt-2.5 overflow-x-scroll whitespace-nowrap md:mx-0 md:max-w-[750px] md:overflow-x-visible\">\n<div class=\"mx-auto max-w-screen-sm\">\n<ul class=\"inline-flex text-xs md:text-sm\">\n<li class=\"mr-6\">About our ads<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-article-mobile md:max-w-[750px] md:grid-cols-article\" data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">According to the FTC, OkCupid&#8217;s privacy policy at the time noted that the company wouldn&#8217;t share a user&#8217;s personal information with others, except for some cases including &#8220;service providers, business partners, other entities within its family of businesses.&#8221; However, the lawsuit accused OkCupid of sharing three million photos of its users to Clarifai, which the FTC claims is a &#8220;unrelated third party&#8221; that didn&#8217;t fall under the allowed entities. On top of that, the lawsuit alleged that OkCupid didn&#8217;t inform its users of this data sharing, nor give them a chance to opt out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">&#8220;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,&#8221; an OkCupid spokesperson told Engadget, adding that the allegations don&#8217;t reflect how OkCupid operates today. &#8220;Over the years, we have further strengthened our privacy practices and data governance to ensure we meet the expectations of our users.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"col-fullbleed mb-4 bg-marshmallow pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_dgb7b4ilfaiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-body mb-4 hidden pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:block\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_lgb7b4ilfaiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Moving forward, the settlement would &#8220;permanently prohibit&#8221; 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&#8217;ve exposed user account info but, which were quickly patched in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/cybersecurity\/okcupid-settles-ftc-case-on-alleged-misuse-of-its-users-personal-data-175159228.html&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/6imrxaBWe0k9Wd72C5LBUg&#8211;\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MDA-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2026-03\/6e0380a0-2c5d-11f1-99fb-b54481eafde9&#8243;] Cybersecurity OkCupid settles FTC case on alleged misuse of its users&#8217; personal data OkCupid denied any wrongdoing and said it strengthened its privacy practices over the years. Jackson Chen Contributing reporter UpdatedMon, March 30, 2026 at 5:52 PM UTC Add Engadget on Google OkCupid Match Group and its subsidiary OkCupid has finally [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,63],"class_list":["post-1855999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-engadget-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1855999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1855999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1855999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1855999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}