FTC Consent Order: OkCupid Shared Intimate User Data With an Undisclosed AI Firm Against Its Own Privacy Policy

OkCupid Promised Not to Share Your Data. Then It Gave It to an AI Company.

OkCupid collects information that users provide nowhere else: sexual orientation, relationship structure preferences, deal-breakers, kinks, mental health history. Its privacy policy told users that data would not be shared with undisclosed third parties. The FTC's proposed consent order says that was not true.

The Receipt

The FTC's proposed settlement, analyzed by Venable LLP in April 2026, documents that Match Group's OkCupid transferred personal user data to an unnamed AI firm. The data transfer contradicted OkCupid's stated privacy policy at the time the sharing occurred. The FTC's consent order — if finalized — constitutes a formal agency finding that the company engaged in deceptive trade practices under Section 5 of the FTC Act.

What It Proves

The consent order confirms a data pipeline that the AI industry has been accused of operating covertly: intimate behavioral and identity data flowing from consumer applications into AI training sets without user knowledge or consent. OkCupid's data is particularly sensitive because it captures attributes — sexuality, relationship preferences, mental health — that users in many jurisdictions could not safely disclose to employers or family. The AI firm receiving the data remains unnamed in the public-facing consent order, which means users have no mechanism to know where their data went or how it was used.