JAKARTA - A new scandal has shaken the technology industry after it was revealed that about three million photos of OkCupid dating app users were shared with third parties. The photos were used for artificial intelligence training without user consent.
The case emerged from the results of an investigation by the US regulator, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has been investigating the practice since 2019. The regulator has now decided that all the data shared - along with the AI model trained from the data - must be deleted.
The practice is known to have started in 2014, when a third-party company requested access to OkCupid's large dataset to improve their AI system. The request was approved by internal parties without restrictions on data use.
More problematic, users were never told, let alone given the option to opt-out. Photos, as well as demographic and location data, were shared without consent - contrary to the privacy policy promised to users.
Legally, the use of personal data without permission is considered to violate the basic principles of consumer protection and privacy. However, in this case, the FTC did not impose a financial fine due to the limitations of the rules in force at the time of the violation.
Instead, the regulator imposed long-term restrictions on OkCupid's parent company. For the next 20 years, the company was prohibited from providing misleading information regarding how they manage user data.
This case adds to a long list of controversies related to AI training practices, which are often criticized for using data without transparency. In the midst of a global race to develop artificial intelligence, the need for large amounts of data often clashes with individual privacy rights.
Observers assess that this case is likely only the "tip of the iceberg". Many similar practices are suspected to have not been revealed, given the lack of supervision at the beginning of the development of AI a decade ago.
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