The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Monday that it has reached a settlement with OkCupid and its affiliate Match Group Americas over allegations that OkCupid “deceived users of its dating app by sharing their personal information, including photos and location information, with an unrelated third party, contrary to OkCupid’s privacy promises.”
A proposed settlement filed in a U.S. District Court on Monday references FTC allegations that OkCupid engaged in deceptive practices “concerning the provision of user data from the OkCupid Service to a third-party facial recognition technology company contrary to promises that OkCupid made to users in its privacy policies.”
The FTC alleged the third party obtained the data because OkCupid’s founders were personal financial investors in the company.
Even though it did not have any business relationship with OkCupid, the third-party data recipient asked the company to share large datasets of OkCupid user photos and related data with it because OkCupid’s founders were financial investors in the third party. OkCupid provided the third party with access to nearly three million OkCupid user photos as well as location and other information without placing any formal or contractual restrictions on how the information could be used, the FTC alleged.
Under the proposed settlement, OkCupid and Match are permanently prohibited from misrepresenting how they collect, use, disclose, or protect user data, including photos, location, and demographic information.
Neither companies mentioned in the filings admitted or denied FTC’s allegations.
The complaint and proposed settlement were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The settlement must be approved and signed by a district court judge before taking effect.
