"Jonathan Mayer, a graduate fellow at Stanford University, launched a 2011 investigation that discovered how OK Cupid appeared to sell many categories of information about its users to two data management platforms — companies that aggregate, consolidate, and sell user data to target online ads. The information OK Cupid "leaked" (in Mayer's terminology) included age and income, along with drug use and drinking frequency, and preferences for cats or dogs.
When asked about Mayer's study, Rudder told VICE News that, "this is public stuff anyone could glean."
"We almost never get user complaints about the things the media thinks they care about," he said.
Mayer hears a similar theme over and over, he says, from Facebook, OK Cupid, and others, on user privacy issues: "If users care so much about privacy, why do they keep acting like they don't? And why do they keep giving out all this personal information?""