Twitter will pay a $ 150 million fine for allegations that it sold user data incorrectly: NPR

Federal regulators on Wednesday announced a settlement with Twitter over the use of users’ privacy.

Matt Rourke / AP

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Matt Rourke / AP

Federal regulators on Wednesday announced a settlement with Twitter over the use of users’ privacy.

Matt Rourke / AP

Twitter has agreed to pay a $ 150 million fine after federal police accused the company on social media of illegally using people’s personal data over six years to help sell targeted ads.

In court documents released Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice say Twitter violated a 2011 agreement with regulators promising not to use aggregated information for security purposes, such as users’ phone numbers and email addresses, to help advertisers target people with ads .

Federal investigators say Twitter broke that promise.

“As the complaint notes, Twitter collected data from users under the pretext of using it for security purposes, but then ended up using the data to target users with ads,” said FTC Leader Lina Khan.

Twitter requires users to provide a phone number and email address to authenticate accounts. This information also helps people reset their passwords and unlock their accounts when the company blocks logins due to suspicious activity.

But until at least September 2019, Twitter also used this information to increase its advertising business by giving advertisers access to users’ phone numbers and email addresses. This was contrary to the agreement the company had with regulators.

“If you tell people that you use their phone numbers to secure their accounts, and then use them for other purposes, you are deceiving them and breaking the law,” said Sam Levine, head of the FTC’s Consumer Agency. Protection, in an interview with NPR.

More than 140 million Twitter users provided this type of personal information based on “Twitter’s misleading statements,” according to federal prosecutors.

“Consumers who share their private information have a right to know if this information is being used to help advertisers target customers,” said U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds of the Northern District of California.

Twitter’s head of privacy, Damien Kieran, acknowledged in one blog posts that users’ personal information “may have been inadvertently used for advertising.”

He said the company no longer sells information collected for security purposes to advertisers.

“Keeping data secure and respecting privacy is something we take extremely seriously, and we have partnered with the FTC every step of the way,” Kieran wrote.

Pursuant to a proposed agreement, Twitter agreed to stop profiting from information collected for security purposes. The agreement, which still needs court approval, will also restrict employees ‘access to users’ personal data.

The action reflects a comprehensive settlement with the FTC that included a $ 5 billion fine against Facebook in 2019 in which the social media giant pledged to stop sharing information obtained for security purposes with advertisers.

Under the terms of the FTC’s agreement with Twitter, regulators and an independent monitor will oversee the company’s advertising practices for two decades.

Justin Brookman, director of technology policy at Consumer Reports, said that while regulators continue to crack down on targeted ads, companies like Twitter that have long relied on tracking tools can be in trouble.

“We see a confluence of regulators, but also browsers and operating systems, cutting down on cookies and cutting down on many tools companies use to track people across services,” Brookman said. “I think in some ways many of these tools are disappearing and companies need to find new ways to make money, that the days of just printing money from targeted ads are coming to an end.”

The settlement comes at a precarious time on Twitter.

The company has been in a state of crisis since Tesla CEO Elon Musk launched a $ 44 billion hostile takeover of social media last month.

Musk recently stated that the agreement is “temporarily pending”, and claimed that he must first find out how widespread bot accounts are on the site.

But corporate merger experts, and members of Twitter’s CEO, have noted that the deal is still moving forward, since Musk has a legally binding contract with the company pending shareholder and regulatory review.

Musk has not yet commented on Wednesday’s settlement.