Clarifai deletes 3 million OkCupid photos following FTC settlement over unauthorized facial recognition training

Clarifai, an AI platform specializing in computer vision, has confirmed the deletion of approximately 3 million photographs that OkCupid users uploaded to the dating app, along with any machine learning models trained on that data. The deletions follow an FTC settlement concluded last month, resolving a privacy violation that originated in 2014 but went unaddressed by regulators for five years.

Internal communications revealed through court documents show that in 2014, Clarifai founder and CEO Matthew Zeiler directly solicited the data from OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn. At the time, Krohn and other OkCupid executives held financial stakes in Clarifai. The dating platform subsequently transferred user-uploaded images along with demographic and location information, a practice that contradicted OkCupid's published privacy policies.

The violation remained obscure until 2019, when a New York Times investigation disclosed that Clarifai had built facial recognition tools capable of inferring age, sex, and race from photographs. This reporting prompted the FTC to launch its inquiry. According to the agency's findings, OkCupid and its parent company Match Group not only violated the data-sharing policies they had set for users but also actively concealed the arrangement and obstructed the investigation over the following years.

The settlement does not include monetary penalties against OkCupid or Match Group—the FTC lacks authority to fine companies for first-time violations in this category. However, the agreement imposes a permanent prohibition on both entities from misrepresenting the nature, scope, or use of user data, and bars them from assisting other companies in making similar misrepresentations. Neither Clarifai, OkCupid, nor Match Group responded to TechCrunch's request for comment on the settlement or the data deletion.