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Oh, I'm quite sure it wasn't public. I had an OkCupid profile at one time (thankfully deleted, and even then it had no identifying details and was linked to a dummy email), and the only reason I agreed to sign up was the site's assurance that absolutely NOTHING was publicly visible unless you had a profile.

So, yeah, at the risk of breaking my attempted objectivity, I'd be personally thrilled if the guy got sued.

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It seems to me that the problem here is that you were assured that things weren't public. In that sense, I would say that OKCupid should be sued.

I mean, sure, academics might get stopped by lawsuits. Russian social engineering hackers won't though.

From https://www.okcupid.com/legal/terms:

"You should appreciate that all information submitted on the Website might potentially be publicly accessible. Important and private information should be protected by you. We are not responsible for protecting, nor are we liable for failing to protect, the privacy of electronic mail or other information transferred through the Internet or any other network that you may utilize."

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