Source: The Next Web
Clarifai received 3 million intimate dating photos from OkCupid in 2014 without user consent, converting personal images into training data for facial recognition systems. The pattern is straightforward: dating platforms monetize user photos as raw material for AI development, often years after collection. The retroactive deletion doesn't address the core problem. The models were already trained and deployed, meaning the harms—surveillance capability, privacy violation, potential bias embedded in facial datasets—persist regardless of whether source images are later purged. This case exposes the absence of meaningful consent mechanisms in data-sharing between platforms and AI companies, where users have no visibility into or control over how their intimate imagery gets used for machine learning.