Clarifai Deletes 3 Million OkCupid Photos After FTC Probe

The AI firm Clarifai has purged 3 million user photographs and destroyed the machine learning models trained on that data, according to a recent report by Reuters. The removal follows federal scrutiny regarding how the dating platform OkCupid shared private user information for facial recognition development.

A Long-Standing Data Conflict

The controversy dates back to 2014, when Clarifai requested data access from OkCupid to improve its facial recognition capabilities. Court documents reviewed by Reuters reveal an email from Clarifai founder and CEO Matthew Zeiler to OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn, stating: “We’re ⁠collecting data now and just realized that OKCupid must have a HUGE amount of awesome data for this.”

OkCupid, which is owned by Match Group, subsequently provided a massive cache of user-uploaded images, alongside location and demographic details. These actions directly conflicted with the dating app’s own stated privacy policies at the time. While executives at OkCupid were investors in Clarifai, the transfer of user data remained undisclosed to the public for years.

The FTC Investigation

Although the data transfer occurred over a decade ago, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) did not initiate a formal investigation until 2019. The probe was triggered following a New York Times report exposing how Clarifai utilized the OkCupid dataset to build tools capable of predicting an individual’s race, sex, and age.

Key findings from the regulatory process included:

• Data Misuse: OkCupid allegedly shared user information in violation of its privacy guarantees.
• Obstruction: The FTC claimed that Match Group and OkCupid attempted to conceal the data sharing and hinder the investigation since 2014.
• Settlement: Last month, Match Group and OkCupid reached a settlement with the FTC. While the companies did not admit to the allegations of deceiving users, the deletion of the Clarifai dataset serves as a tacit acknowledgment of the unauthorized access.

Regulatory Consequences

Because this was considered a first-time offense, the FTC could not impose monetary fines. However, the agency issued a strict mandate prohibiting Match Group and OkCupid from misrepresenting their data collection practices or assisting third parties in similar deceptive acts moving forward.

Neither OkCupid nor Clarifai provided immediate comments when contacted regarding the developments.