AI Firm Deletes 3 Million OkCupid Photos After FTC Settlement

It appears that justice, albeit delayed, has finally caught up with AI company Clarifai. The company has reportedly deleted 3 million profile photos originally sourced from dating site OkCupid back in 2014. This significant move comes after a settlement was reached last month between the FTC and Match Group, OkCupid's parent company, concerning alleged privacy violations.

According to reports, Clarifai, based in Delaware, certified the deletion of this data to the FTC on April 7th. The company also confirmed to US Representative Lori Trahan that any AI models trained on this data have also been removed. Clarifai has stated that the data was not shared with any third parties.

The investigation into Clarifai's practices began in 2019, prompted by a New York Times report. The report revealed that Clarifai had assembled a training database using OkCupid dating profile photos, a clear breach of OkCupid's own privacy policy. Court documents indicate that Clarifai executives had indeed requested the data from OkCupid in 2014, and their request was granted.

Clarifai

The dating site's images were utilized by Clarifai to develop a facial recognition service capable of identifying a person's age, gender, and race. Interestingly, some of OkCupid's founders were reportedly investors in Clarifai at the time. In its defense, Clarifai's founder, Matthew Zeiler, suggested in 2019 that people should trust tech companies to use powerful technology responsibly.

As part of the settlement, the FTC has imposed a permanent ban on OkCupid misrepresenting its data collection and privacy controls. Some observers have noted the unusual nature of this penalty, as such misrepresentations are already prohibited by FTC regulations.