Clarifai, an AI platform, has deleted 3 million photographs obtained from OkCupid, which were being used to train its facial recognition AI. This action follows scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as reported by Reuters. The controversy dates back to 2014 when Clarifai, encouraged by investments from OkCupid executives, requested user data from the dating app. OkCupid complied, sharing user-submitted photos alongside demographic and location data, which, according to its privacy policies, should not have been shared.
Court documents indicate that Clarifai’s founder and CEO Matthew Zeiler acknowledged the potential wealth of data from OkCupid in a communication with co-founder Maxwell Krohn. Despite this incident dating back several years, it wasn’t until 2019 that the FTC initiated an investigation after The New York Times reported that Clarifai had used OkCupid images to create a tool capable of estimating users’ age, gender, and race based on facial features.
Recently, the FTC settled with both Clarifai and OkCupid, which is a part of Match Group. Although OkCupid and Match Group did not admit to misleading users regarding their privacy practices, Clarifai’s admission of data deletion suggests that the company did access those user photos. Furthermore, the FTC accused both OkCupid and Match Group of deliberately hiding their data-sharing practices and obstructing the investigation since 2014.
Under the settlement terms, the FTC cannot impose fines for this first-time violation; however, OkCupid and Match Group are now permanently prohibited from misrepresenting their data collection and sharing practices.
Representatives from OkCupid and Clarifai were unavailable for comment at the time of this report. This case highlights ongoing concerns regarding user privacy and ethical data use within the tech industry, particularly as companies increasingly rely on personal data to enhance AI technologies.
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