The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement with dating app operator OkCupid and its affiliate Match Group Americas (Match), resolving allegations that the company had violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by sharing users’ personal information with a third party in a manner that was not disclosed in the company’s privacy notice. Specifically, the FTC alleged that OkCupid, Humor Rainbow (the parent company that owns and operates the online and mobile dating application OkCupid) and Match acted contrary to representations in its privacy policy when it disclosed personal information, including user photos, location data, and demographic data, to Clarifai, Inc., a third party in which an OkCupid founder was financially invested and which did not have a service provider or similar relationship with OkCupid. The complaint alleged that this amounted to a deceptive practice.
The proposed settlement prohibits OkCupid from misrepresenting the extent to which it collects, maintains, uses, discloses, deletes, or protects any personal information, as well as the purposes for which it collects, maintains, uses, or discloses such personal information. In addition, it prohibits OkCupid from misrepresenting the function of privacy controls provided to consumers through user interfaces, any consumer choices afforded to consumers under applicable state laws, or any other mechanisms the company offers consumers to limit or manage the processing of personal information.