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Report: Clarifai deletes 3 million photos OkCupid provided for facial recognition AI training
Clarifai removed 3 million photos it obtained from OkCupid to train its facial recognition AI, according to Reuters. The company also deleted any models that had been built using that data.
As part of the FTC’s investigation, Clarifai requested data from OkCupid in 2014 — a dating app whose executives had invested in the company. Reports indicate that the platform provided user-uploaded photos along with demographic and location details. This practice should have been prohibited under OkCupid’s own privacy policies.
“We’re collecting data now and just realized that OKCupid must have a HUGE amount of awesome data for this,” Clarifai founder and CEO Matthew Zeiler wrote in an email to OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn, according to court documents reviewed by Reuters.
Although this incident appears to have occurred twelve years ago, the FTC didn’t launch an investigation until 2019, after a New York Times article on Clarifai revealed that the company had used OkCupid images to build an AI tool capable of estimating a person’s age, sex, and race from their face.
The FTC and OkCupid — owned by Match Group — reached a settlement last month. While OkCupid and Match Group did not admit to deceiving users by violating their own privacy policies, Clarifai’s confirmation that it deleted the data suggests the company did indeed gain access to those photos. The FTC also alleged that Match Group and OkCupid deliberately concealed this behavior since 2014 and attempted to obstruct the investigation.
OkCupid and Clarifai did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.
Though the FTC cannot fine companies for a first-time offense of this kind, the agency ruled that OkCupid and Match are “permanently prohibited from misrepresenting or assisting others in misrepresenting” the nature of their data collection and data sharing. In effect, they are barred from engaging in practices already prohibited by the FTC.
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Clarifai removed 3 million photos it obtained from OkCupid to train its facial recognition AI, according to Reuters. The company also deleted any models that had been built using that data.
As part of the FTC’s investigation, Clarifai requested data from OkCupid in 2014 — a dating app whose executives had invested in the company. Reports indicate that the platform provided user-uploaded photos along with demographic and location details. This practice should have been prohibited under OkCupid’s own privacy policies.
“We’re collecting data now and just realized that OKCupid must have a HUGE amount of awesome data for this,” Clarifai founder and CEO Matthew Zeiler wrote in an email to OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn, according to court documents reviewed by Reuters.
Although this incident appears to have occurred twelve years ago, the FTC didn’t launch an investigation until 2019, after a New York Times article on Clarifai revealed that the company had used OkCupid images to build an AI tool capable of estimating a person’s age, sex, and race from their face.
The FTC and OkCupid — owned by Match Group — reached a settlement last month. While OkCupid and Match Group did not admit to deceiving users by violating their own privacy policies, Clarifai’s confirmation that it deleted the data suggests the company did indeed gain access to those photos. The FTC also alleged that Match Group and OkCupid deliberately concealed this behavior since 2014 and attempted to obstruct the investigation.
OkCupid and Clarifai did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.
Though the FTC cannot fine companies for a first-time offense of this kind, the agency ruled that OkCupid and Match are “permanently prohibited from misrepresenting or assisting others in misrepresenting” the nature of their data collection and data sharing. In effect, they are barred from engaging in practices already prohibited by the FTC.
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