WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Twitter has agreed to pay $150 million to settle a privacy lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. It also agreed to implement robust compliance measures to protect users' data privacy.
In a complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the U.S. government alleged that Twitter violated the FTC Act and the 2011 order by deceiving users about the extent to which Twitter maintained and protected the security and privacy of users' nonpublic contact information.
Specifically, the complaint alleged that, from May 2013 to September 2019, Twitter told its users that it was collecting their telephone numbers and email addresses for account-security purposes, but failed to disclose that it also would use that information to help companies send targeted advertisements to consumers.
The complaint also alleged that Twitter falsely claimed to comply with the European Union-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks, which prohibit companies from processing user information in ways that are not compatible with the purposes authorized by the users.
'....Twitter obtained data from users on the pretext of harnessing it for security purposes but then ended up also using the data to target users with ads. 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.
Under the settlement terms, Twitter will be required to develop and maintain a comprehensive privacy and information-security program, conduct a privacy review with a written report prior to implementing any new product or service that collects users' private information, and conduct regular testing of its data privacy safeguards.
The Social media giant will also be required to obtain regular assessments of its data privacy program from an independent assessor, provide annual certifications of compliance from a senior officer, provide reports after any data privacy incidents affecting 250 or more users, and comply with numerous other reporting and record-keeping requirements.
In addition, the settlement will require Twitter to notify all U.S. customers who joined Twitter before September 17, 2019, about the settlement and to provide users with options for protecting their privacy and security.
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