Twitter agrees to pay millions in fines after US government alleges privacy violations

According to the federal lawsuit, Twitter failed to inform its customers for years that it used their contact information to assist entrepreneurs goal their promoting — in violation of a 2011 privacy settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

“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,” Damien Kieran, Twitter’s chief privacy officer, wrote in a weblog publish. “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.”

In its alleged misconduct, Twitter solely ever informed customers that their telephone numbers and e mail addresses have been getting used for account safety functions, however failed to point out promoting, in accordance to a replica of the criticism seen by CNN.

“From at least May 2013 until at least September 2019, Twitter 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 criticism mentioned.

“Twitter’s misrepresentations violate the FTC Act and the 2011 Order, which specifically prohibits the company from making misrepresentations regarding the security of nonpublic consumer information,” the criticism mentioned.

In addition to the $150 million penalty, the brand new proposed settlement between Twitter and the FTC to settle Wednesday’s allegations additionally bars the corporate from profiting off of what the FTC described as “deceptively collected data” and to permit for consumer authentication strategies aside from telephone numbers, resembling multi-factor authentication apps. The firm may also be required to inform customers about its failure to disclose its alleged apply of utilizing contact information for promoting functions.

Wednesday’s settlement should nonetheless be authorised by the court docket.