Clarifai Deletes 3 Million OkCupid Photos Used for Facial Recognition AI After FTC Settlement

Clarifai deletes 3 million photos that OkCupid provided to train facial recognition AI, report says | TechCrunch

The AI platform Clarifai deleted 3 million photos that it says it got from OkCupid to train its facial recognition AI, according to Reuters. The company also deleted any models that were trained using that data. Per the FTC's investigation, Clarifai asked OkCupid -- whose executives had invested in the company -- to share data in 2014. The dating app then provided these user-uploaded photos, reports say, along with other demographic and location data. Per OkCupid's own privacy policies, this behavior should have been prohibited. "We're ⁠collecting data now and just realized that OKCupid must have a HUGE amount of awesome data for this," Clarifai founder and CEO Matthew Zeiler wrote in an email to OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn, according to court documents reviewed by Reuters. Though this incident appears to have taken place twelve years ago, the FTC did not open an investigation until 2019, when a New York Times article about Clarifai mentioned that the company had used images from OkCupid to build an AI tool that could estimate someone's age, sex, and race based on their face. The FTC and OkCupid, which is owned by Match Group, settled the lawsuit last month. At the time, OkCupid and Match Group did not admit to the allegations that it deceived users by violating its own privacy policies, but Clarifai's confirmation that it has deleted the data implies that the company did indeed get access to those photos. The FTC also alleged that since 2014, Match Group and OkCupid deliberately concealed this behavior and attempted to obstruct its investigation. OkCupid and Clarifai did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's requests for comment. While the FTC is not able to fine companies for this type of first-time offense, the agency declared that OkCupid and Match are "permanently prohibited from misrepresenting or assisting others in misrepresenting" the nature of their data collection and sharing. So, OkCupid and Match are prohibited from partaking in these behaviors, which are already not allowed by the FTC.

AI company deleted OKCupid user photos, data after FTC scrutiny

April 20 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence company Clarifai said this month it had deleted 3 million OkCupid user photos and facial-recognition models trained on them after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission settled with the dating site over privacy violations. OkCupid settled with the FTC in late March for providing photos and demographic data to train Clarifai's facial-recognition models in 2014, but the settlement drew criticism from some Democrats who alleged it did not go far enough. The incident reflects how AI has become a political flashpoint ahead of U.S. congressional elections, as President Donald Trump's administration seeks to promote American dominance in the industry. Clarifai certified to the FTC on April 7 ⁠that it had deleted the data, according to a document seen by Reuters. COMPANY DELETES MODELS AND DATA The company also told the office of U.S. Representative Lori Trahan on April 16 that it had deleted any models trained on the data and had not shared the data with third parties, her office said. The Democrat from Massachusetts called the confirmation "a step in the right direction," but said "the FTC should have never settled for less in the first place." "Misconduct by AI companies should never go unnoticed or unanswered, and I'll continue plugging gaps left by this partisan FTC to ensure Americans' privacy and safety comes first," Trahan said in a statement. However, FTC spokesperson Joe Simonson said: "This is a completely baseless issue manufactured by Democrats who do nothing ⁠but lie for a living." The FTC does not have authority to issue penalties for the violations alleged in the case. Clarifai, which received the data after requesting it from OkCupid, was not accused of any wrongdoing. Clarifai did not respond to requests for comment on how many models were deleted or how long they were in use. FACIAL-RECOGNITION DATA The Delaware-based company offers facial-recognition technology that identifies individuals in images ⁠and video, and can analyze age, race and gender, according to its website. The company has contracted with the U.S. military, and has received investments from Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab and others. Clarifai's founder sought the data in 2014, when some OkCupid executives were Clarifai investors, according to court documents. "We're ⁠collecting data now and just realized that OKCupid must have a HUGE amount of awesome data for this," Clarifai founder Matthew Zeiler wrote in an email to OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn. The data transfer breached OkCupid's privacy policy and a federal ⁠law against deceptive business practices, the FTC said. OkCupid and Match Group (MTCH.O), opens new tab , which runs Tinder and other online dating platforms, agreed not to misrepresent their privacy policies under the settlement. The agency opened the probe after a New York Times article in 2019, during the first Trump administration. Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Artificial Intelligence * Constitutional Law * Public Policy * Data Privacy Jody Godoy Thomson Reuters Jody Godoy reports on tech policy and antitrust enforcement, including how regulators are responding to the rise of AI. Reach her at [email protected]

AI company deletes the 3 million OKCupid photos it used for facial recognition training

When online platforms violate their own privacy policies to sell your photos, have no fear: They just might have to pay an undisclosed settlement fee 12 years later. (Who says justice is dead?) According to Reuters, AI company Clarifai says it has deleted 3 million profile photos taken from dating site OkCupid in 2014. It follows a settlement reached last month between the FTC and Match Group, OkCupid's owner. The Delaware-based Clarifai reportedly certified the data deletion to the FTC on April 7. The company also confirmed to US Representative Lori Trahan (D-MA) that it deleted any models that trained on the data. Clarifai told the representative's office that it hadn't shared the data with third parties. The FTC opened the investigation in 2019, after The New York Times reported that Clarifai had built a training database using OkCupid dating profile photos. The behavior was a direct violation of OkCupid's privacy policy. Court documents reviewed by Reuters reveal that Clarifai asked OkCupid executives for the data in 2014. Apparently, they obliged. "We're ⁠collecting data now and just realized that OkCupid must have a HUGE amount of awesome data for this," Clarifai founder Matthew Zeiler wrote in an email to OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn. The AI startup used the dating site's images to build a facial recognition service that can identify a person's age, gender and race. (Another brilliant and totally ethical idea from Clarifai, tapping into unsecured city surveillance cameras without authorization, was reportedly shuttered.) Zeiller suggested to The New York Times in 2019 that people needed to, well, get over it. "There has to be some level of trust with tech companies like Clarifai to put powerful technology to good use, and get comfortable with that," the AI founder declared. Some of OkCupid's founders were reportedly investors in Clarifai. As part of the settlement, the FTC "permanently prohibited" OkCupid from misrepresenting its data collection and privacy controls. TechCrunch notes how strange it is to use that as a penalty, given that FTC rules already bar that behavior.

FTC settles OkCupid data scandal with no fin

The AI company received the photos from OkCupid in 2014 without users' knowledge, in a data transfer that breached OkCupid's own privacy policy. The FTC's late March settlement with OkCupid and Match Group brought no financial penalties. Clarifai was not accused of wrongdoing. Clarifai, a Delaware-based facial-recognition AI company, has confirmed that it deleted approximately three million OkCupid user photos and the facial-recognition models trained on those images, following the US Federal Trade Commission's settlement with the dating site over a privacy violation that dates back to 2014. Clarifai certified its deletion to the FTC on 7 April 2026, according to a document seen by Reuters, and told the office of US Representative Lori Trahan on 16 April that it had deleted any models trained on the data and had not shared it with third parties. The underlying incident began over a decade ago. OkCupid's founders were investors in Clarifai, and Clarifai's founder Matthew Zeiler contacted OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn in 2014 to request access to its data. "We're collecting data now and just realized that OKCupid must have a HUGE amount of awesome data for this," Zeiler wrote, according to court documents cited by Reuters. OkCupid handed over nearly three million user photos, along with location and demographic data, without any formal agreement, without placing restrictions on how the data could be used, and without notifying users or allowing them to opt out. OkCupid's privacy policy at the time explicitly stated it would not share personal data with parties outside a defined set of business relationships. Clarifai was none of those things. The FTC opened its investigation after a New York Times article in 2019, but the case took years to settle. The proposed consent order, announced on 30 March 2026, prohibits OkCupid and its parent Match Group, which also operates Tinder, from misrepresenting their data practices for 20 years. It does not include a financial penalty: the FTC does not have authority to issue fines for violations of this type under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Clarifai was not accused of any wrongdoing, having received the data through a request rather than initiating the transfer. The settlement drew immediate criticism. Representative Trahan, a Democrat from Massachusetts, described Clarifai's deletion confirmation as "a step in the right direction," but added that "the FTC should have never settled for less in the first place." The case is the FTC's first Section 5 privacy enforcement action under Chair Andrew Ferguson, and legal analysts at Venable note that, unlike many prior FTC privacy consent orders, this one imposes no ongoing compliance programme requirements or affirmative notification obligations on the companies. The technical profile of the data makes the absence of penalties more striking. Clarifai's products include facial-recognition systems that can identify individuals and analyse age, race, and gender from images. The company has contracted with the US military and received investment from Nvidia. Facial-recognition models trained on intimate social data, photos people shared on a dating platform, often expecting privacy, carry different risks from models trained on publicly available images. Whether those models persist in any form elsewhere in the AI ecosystem, through third-party licensing or derived models, remains unknown: Clarifai did not say how long the models were in operation before deletion.

3 million dating app photos used for AI training before FTC privacy enforcement

The privacy breach dates back to 2014, but TNW reports that the case was only finally resolved this month, with both the photos and the AI model generated from them being deleted. The underlying incident began over a decade ago. OkCupid's founders were investors in Clarifai, and Clarifai's founder Matthew Zeiler contacted OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn in 2014 to request access to its data. "We're collecting data now and just realized that OKCupid must have a HUGE amount of awesome data for this," Zeiler wrote, according to court documents cited by Reuters. OkCupid handed over nearly three million user photos, along with location and demographic data, without any formal agreement, without placing restrictions on how the data could be used, and without notifying users or allowing them to opt out. Yep, it was apparently that casual. The company's privacy policy explicitly promised not to share personal data with unconnected third parties. The Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation in 2019, but it for some reason took until this year to resolve the matter. In addition to deleting the data, OkCupid parent company Match Group has been banned for misrepresenting its data practices for the next 20 years. (Does this mean it will be allowed to lie 21 years from now? Enquiring minds need to know ...) Regrettably, the FTC doesn't have the authority to issue financial penalties for this type of privacy violation.

AI Facial Recognition Firm Deletes Millions of OkCupid User Photos Shared Without Consent

AI facial recognition company Clarifai says it has deleted the three million user photos dating app OKCupid shared with it without users' consent. Earlier this month, Match Group, which owns platforms including Tinder, OkCupid, and Match.com, agreed to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit alleging that it improperly shared millions of users' personal data, including photos used to train facial recognition technology, without permission. According to the FTC, after Clarifai contacted one of OkCupid's founders in 2014, the dating app provided access to nearly three million user photos, along with demographic and location data. At the time, Clarifai was developing image recognition systems that rely on large datasets to train algorithms, a practice that has become widespread but has also raised concerns about consent and transparency in the AI industry. The FTC alleged that sharing the data violated OkCupid's own privacy policy because users were not given an option to opt out. It also claimed that OkCupid and Match later attempted to obscure their relationship with Clarifai when The New York Times inquired about the arrangement for a story. OkCupid and its parent company did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement with the FTC. While the FTC is not able to fine companies for this type of first-time offense, the agency says that OkCupid and Match are "permanently prohibited from misrepresenting or assisting others in misrepresenting" the nature of their data collection and sharing. According to a report by Reuters, the settlement drew criticism from some Democrats who said it did not go far enough. But in a document seen by Reuters, Clarifai certified to the FTC on April 7 that it had deleted the photo data. The company also told the office of U.S. Representative Lori Trahan on April 16 that it had deleted any models trained on the data and had not shared the data with third parties. Trahan calls the confirmation "a step in the right direction," but says "the FTC should have never settled for less in the first place." Delaware-based Clarifai offers facial recognition technology that identifies individuals in images and video, and can analyze age, race and gender, according to its website. Clarifai's founder sought the data in 2014, when some OkCupid executives were Clarifai investors, according to court documents. "We're collecting data now and just realized that OKCupid must have a huge amount of awesome data for this," Clarifai founder Matthew Zeiler wrote in an email to OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn. The FTC says the data transfer breached OkCupid's privacy policy and a federal law against deceptive business practices. Separately, Tinder recently announced it is testing a feature that uses AI to scan users' camera rolls to select photos and suggest aspects of their personality.