OkCupid settles claims it shared user photos with a facial recognition company

The Verge / 3/31/2026

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Key Points

  • The FTC announced that dating app OkCupid agreed to settle claims that it deceived users by sharing their photos with a third-party facial recognition company without consent.
  • The agency alleges that after Clarifai contacted an OkCupid founder in 2014, OkCupid provided Clarifai access to nearly three million user photos plus demographic and location data.
  • OkCupid and its parent, Match Group, did not admit wrongdoing, but they agreed to stop making similar alleged misrepresentations in the future.
  • The settlement highlights regulatory scrutiny of privacy practices involving biometric/facial recognition data and third-party sharing.
An illustration depicting a featureless face against a pink, white, and blue background.

Dating app OkCupid agreed to settle claims from the Federal Trade Commission that it deceived millions of users by sharing their photos with a third-party facial recognition company without their consent.

OkCupid and parent company Match Group did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, but instead promised not to make similar alleged misrepresentations in the future. According to the FTC complaint, after facial recognition company Clarifai reached out to one of OkCupid's founders in 2014, the app gave it access to nearly three million OkCupid user photos, alongside demographic and location data about users. That access violated Ok …

Read the full story at The Verge.