Twitter – phone numbers were supposed to protect and earn money.
The popular “Tweeter” has fallen back to the Federal Trade Commission.
The most important information:
- Federal Trade Commission investigates Twitter;
- Americans accuse the portal of breaking the 2011 agreement, obliging the website to inform about the use of user data;
- meanwhile, the website was to “inadvertently” provide advertisers with telephone numbers and e-mail addresses provided by users, among others as part of a two-step login verification.
It cannot be denied that when it comes to scandals with social networking sites, Facebook definitely stands out from the competition. It was Mark Zuckerberg’s portal that had to pay a record fine of $ 5 million. This does not mean, however, that other platforms have a clean file. Twitter announced the US lawsuit Federal Trade Commission (FTC). As a result, the site estimates it could be fined $ 150 million to $ 250 million. Information was provided in the quarterly report on Form 10-Q. The Verge also received confirmation from an FTC representative about “an ongoing investigation against Twitter.”
The problem concerns the use of user data, more precisely: phones and e-mail addresses provided when setting up two-step login verification. In 2011, Twitter signed a twenty-year settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission, under which it has made a commitment not to mislead users about the use of their private information. Meanwhile, in October 2019, the website admitted to ‘inadvertently’ using phone numbers and e-mails to personalize ads in 2013-2019.
Twitter was supposed to “inadvertently” hand over users’ phones and e-mails to advertisers.
This gave the FTC a basis for believing that Twitter violated a decade-old settlement. The website informed that the information provided by users would be used only to ensure greater security on the platform. Doubts are raised about the “inadvertent” use of this data by the portal. For now, however, the Commission is still investigating the case, and Twitter itself has not addressed the issue of a possible appeal against the FTC’s decision.
This isn’t the first Twitter security issue. In mid-July, the platform became a target of hackerswho managed to take over the accounts of Bill Gates, Elon Musk and other personalities and draw over 117,000 from users. dollars. One of the perpetrators – 17-year-old Graham Ivan Clark – was charged by the police with 30 charges. Interestingly, the young man started his “career” as a scammer in Minecraft. Then it hit the hacker forums, the cryptocurrency market and finally the police station after a coordinated attack on Twitter (via New York Times).
- Official page of Twitter
- Official website of the Federal Trade Commission
