United States of America: Federal Trade Commission reached settlement with OkCupid and its affiliate Match Group Americas concerning allegations of deceptive data-sharing practices

On 30 March 2026, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint and proposed settlement against Humor Rainbow, Inc., doing business as OkCupid, and its affiliate Match Group Americas (MGA), alleging that OkCupid gave an unrelated third-party facial recognition technology company, Clarifai, Inc., access to nearly 3 million user photos as well as users' demographic and location information in September 2014. The FTC alleged that the data transfer violated OkCupid's privacy policy, which stated that personal information would only be shared with service providers, business partners, or businesses within its family of businesses. The FTC further alleged that the transfer occurred because OkCupid's founders were personally invested in Clarifai, Inc., and that Match and OkCupid took steps to conceal the data sharing from users since 2014. OkCupid and MGA neither admitted nor denied the allegations. Under the proposed settlement, OkCupid and MGA would be permanently prohibited from misrepresenting their collection, use, disclosure, or deletion of personal information, the purposes for which personal information is collected or used, and the function of privacy controls offered to users. OkCupid and MGA would also be required to obtain acknowledgements of receipt of the settlement order, submit annual compliance reports to the FTC, and notify the FTC of any changes to designated points of contact or corporate structure. In addition, OkCupid and MGA would be required to maintain records of revenues and consumer complaints for 10 years, cooperate with FTC compliance monitoring, and permit the FTC to interview affiliated personnel. The proposed settlement order is pending approval by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas and would remain in effect for 20 years upon entry.