Despite being in the midst of acquisition trauma, Twitter has been fined $150 million by the US Government’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for misleading users of its intention behind their data collection.
As shown in the FTC lawsuit, Twitter failed to inform its users for years that it utilized their contact information to assist marketers to target their advertising, violating a 2011 privacy agreement with the Federal Trade Commission.
Elon Musk and the Twitter allegation
While a lot of people might be wondering if Elon musk has anything to do with this allegation since he’s involved in the Twitter buying drama that has become the talk of the town.
However, According to a report, The microblogging site has been misusing its users’ data for about 6 years, between May 2013 and September 2019. This implies that this has been happening even before Elon started his acquisition process.
“This practice affected more than 140 million Twitter users while boosting Twitter’s primary source of revenue,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement.
Twitter Alleged Misconduct
Twitter users were informed that the company was collecting their email addresses and phone numbers for the purpose of improving account security. However, according to the government’s allegations, it failed to disclose that it would also use the information to make it possible for companies to send targeted online advertisements to users of the platform.
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“From at least May 2013 until at least September 2019, The microblogging site misrepresented to users of its online communication service the extent to which it maintained and protected the security and privacy of their nonpublic contact information,” the complaint said.
In addition, the FTC alleged that the company had serious data security flaws, which allowed hackers to gain unauthorized administrative control of the platform. This control would have given the hackers access to non-public user information as well as tweets that users had marked as private, as well as the ability to send fake tweets from any account.
What FTC is saying about Twitter
The FTC’s complaint alleged that between January and May of 2009, hackers were able to gain administrative control of the microblogging site on two occasions.
“Under the terms of the settlement, The microblogging site will be barred for 20 years from misleading consumers about the extent to which it protects the security, privacy, and confidentiality of nonpublic consumer information, including the measures it takes to prevent unauthorized access to nonpublic information and honor the privacy choices made by consumers.
The company also must establish and maintain a comprehensive information security program, which will be assessed by an independent auditor every other year for 10 years.”
After much celebration, the commission vote to accept the settlement as final was 5-0.
What Twitter has to say
Wednesday, Twitter said that the use of personal information for advertising was “inadvertent,” and that the incident was first reported in 2019.
Damien Kieran, Twitter’s chief privacy officer, wrote in a blog post that “This issue was addressed as of September 17, 2019, and today we want to reiterate the work we’ll continue to do to protect the privacy and security of the people who use Twitter,”
He added “Twitter’s commitment to security and privacy is not a point-in-time exercise for us but a core value we constantly enhance by updating our practices to meet the evolving needs of our customers. The recently announced Data Governance Committee is an embodiment of our dedication to strengthen the implementation of our privacy and security policies and standards, as well as to expand our internal privacy and security review processes during the product development life cycle.”
Twitter pays $150 million fine
As the allegations are beyond any reasonable doubt, Twitter has confirmed that it has paid the fine impounded on them on Wednesday after reaching a settlement.
“Keeping data secure and respecting privacy is something we take extremely seriously, and we have cooperated with the FTC every step of the way. In reaching this settlement, we have paid a $150M USD penalty, and we have aligned with the agency on operational updates and program enhancements to ensure that people’s personal data remains secure and their privacy protected.”