OKCupid and Dating Members Info: Dating in the News

Privacy Study: Top U.S. Websites Share Visitor Personal Data WSJ Blogs - By Julia Angwin
NOTE: This post has been updated to include clarifications that were made to the original study. A study released Tuesday shows that 45% of the top 185 U.S. websites transmit identifying details about their visitors to at least four outside websites. The data transmitted was primarily a “username” – which is the name a person uses to log into a website – or a user ID assigned by the website to a user. It was usually transmitted through referrers – which is information about the web page transmitted automatically. Online date website OKCupid In some cases, the data went much further: the study found for instance that the online dating website OKCupid sent the gender, age, zip code, relationship status and ‘drug use frequency’ to two companies that sell personal data in auctions, BlueKai and Lotame. Lotame also received data about ‘relationship status’ and ‘drug use frequency.’
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