Zoosk, an online dating platform with tens of millions of users across multiple countries, suffered a data breach in January 2020 that exposed approximately 23.9 million user records. The breach was subsequently distributed widely across online hacking communities. The attack vector was a misconfiguration, meaning the exposure was not the result of sophisticated intrusion but of a security oversight within Zoosk's own systems. The breach was later provided to the public breach notification service Have I Been Pwned by the site breachbase.pw. The data exposed goes well beyond basic account information. Affected users had the following types of information compromised: names, nicknames, email addresses, dates of birth, geographic locations, physical attributes including height and weight, income levels, account balances, education levels, and family structure. Critically, the breach also included sexual orientations, religions, political views, ethnicities, relationship statuses, and habits around smoking and drinking. The combination of these fields is what makes this breach particularly dangerous. None of these categories were disclosed in isolation. An outside party holding this dataset can link a person's identity to their sexual orientation, faith, or ethnicity without that person ever having disclosed those details publicly. This creates real risk of targeted discrimination, blackmail, or harassment, regardless of how discreetly the individual used the platform. Zoosk notified users and prompted credential resets following the breach. No major regulatory enforcement action or class action settlement specific to this incident has been prominently documented. People affected should treat their email address as exposed and be alert to phishing attempts, romance scams using their profile details, or impersonation. Anyone whose sexual orientation, religion, or ethnicity appeared in this dataset should be aware that this information may be in circulation in criminal communities and could be used to target them specifically.

Dating platforms collect user identity, profile details, photos, messages, relationship preferences, subscription records, and engagement activity tied to matchmaking workflows.

Zoosk has continued operating under Spark Networks, which has navigated a challenging environment for subscription dating platforms facing competition from app-based services. No major standalone Zoosk organizational changes have been prominently reported in the recent period.