March 30 (Reuters) – Match Group agreed to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission lawsuit claiming it gave an outside company unauthorized access to personal data belonging to millions of users of the OkCupid dating app.
The FTC said OkCupid users were never told their information – including nearly 3 million photos, demographic information and location data – would be shared in 2014 with Clarifai, a facial recognition technology company, contrary to OkCupid’s privacy policies.
Monday’s settlement in Dallas federal court prohibits Match from misrepresenting the privacy of user information, and requires the Dallas-based company to certify compliance.
Match and OkCupid neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing, and could face civil fines for future violations. The settlement requires court approval.
A spokesperson for OkCupid said it has strengthened its privacy practices, and the alleged conduct “does not reflect how OkCupid operates today.”
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Mark Porter)
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