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Comment by sdfjkl | Hacker News Reader

With their multiple-choice questions, OkCupid has a lot of in-depth personality data that is a total privacy nightmare if leaked to anyone. And therefore very valuable. Things like diet, sleeping habits, sexual preferences, religious and political alignment, addictions, everything really.

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"Leaked?" "Privacy nightmare?" Last time I used OkCupid was like a decade ago. Back then you could view everyone's answers to their multiple choice questions right on their profile. It's purpose is (was?) literally to be read by others. Just like the purpose of this HN post is for others to read.

Edit: I think you could view them only if you both gave answers to the same question.

>Edit: I think you could view them only if you both gave answers to the same question.

Correct, but it would show you the questions you hadn't answered and let you answer them right then and there to see their response, meaning a couple of clicks. Scripting that for mining would have been trivial via the website.

OkCupid has a lot of in-depth personality data that is a total privacy nightmare if leaked to anyone

Don’t you remember this? https://www.vox.com/2016/5/12/11666116/70000-okcupid-users-d...

OKC has been problematic for years now.

Solution: inject it with even more incorrect information about yourself.

But that messes up the data it's using to try to give you compatible matches. And it misinforms the people you're trying to meet (assuming public answers).

Exactly. These are features.

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