{"id":32174,"date":"2022-05-28T11:37:37","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T11:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/05\/28\/twitter-fined-150m-in-us-for-selling-users-data\/"},"modified":"2022-05-28T11:37:37","modified_gmt":"2022-05-28T11:37:37","slug":"twitter-fined-150m-in-us-for-selling-users-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/05\/28\/twitter-fined-150m-in-us-for-selling-users-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter fined $150m in US for selling users&#8217; data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div >\n<p ><b >Twitter in the US has been fined $150m (\u00a3119m) after law enforcement officials accused Twitter of illegally using user data to sell targeted advertising. <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department say Twitter violated an agreement with regulators, court documents showed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Twitter had vowed not to share personal information, such as phone numbers and email addresses, with advertisers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Federal investigators say the social media company broke those rules. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Twitter was fined \u00a3400,000 in December 2020 for breaching GDPR data protection rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The FTC is an independent agency of the US government tasked with enforcing antitrust laws and promoting consumer protection.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >It accuses Twitter of violating a 2011 FTC order that specifically prohibited the company from misrepresenting its privacy and security practices. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Twitter generates most of its revenue from advertising on its platform, which allows users ranging from consumers to celebrities to businesses to post 280-character messages or tweets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >According to a complaint filed by the Justice Department on behalf of the FTC, in 2013 Twitter began requiring users to provide either a phone number or email address to improve account security. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;As the complaint notes, Twitter received data from users under the pretense of using it for security purposes, but then also used the data to target users with ads,&#8221; said Lina Khan, chair of the FTC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >    &#8220;This practice affected more than 140 million Twitter users while boosting Twitter&#8217;s main revenue stream.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Ian Reynolds, chief executive of computer security firm Secure Team, told the BBC: &#8220;Twitter is once again violating its users&#8217; trust in their platform by using their private information for their own gain and increasing their own revenue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >He added: &#8220;Twitter gave its customers a false sense of security by acquiring their data, claiming that it was for security purposes and to protect their account, but ultimately used the data to target their users with ads.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >\u201cThis reality shows the power that organizations still have over their data and that there is still a long way to go before users can be confident that they are in full control of their own digital footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >To authenticate an account, Twitter requires people to provide a phone number and email address.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >This information also helps users reset their passwords and unlock their accounts if needed, as well as enable two-factor authentication. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Two-factor authentication provides an extra layer of security by sending a code to either a phone number or an email address to help users log into Twitter along with a username and password.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >But Twitter also used this information to boost its advertising business up until at least September 2019, according to the FTC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >It is accused of giving advertisers access to users&#8217; security information. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >In addition to the fine, Twitter must also:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<div >\n<ul >\n<li>Stop using the illegally collected phone numbers and email addresses<\/li>\n<li>Notify users of misuse of security information<\/li>\n<li>Inform users of FTC law enforcement actions<\/li>\n<li>explain how to opt out of personalized ads and review multi-factor authentication settings<\/li>\n<li>Offer multi-factor authentication options that don&#8217;t require a phone number<\/li>\n<li>Implement an enhanced privacy and security program that includes reporting incidents to the FTC within 30 days<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;The Department of Justice is committed to protecting the privacy of sensitive consumer information,&#8221; said Vanita Gupta, US Deputy Attorney General. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;The $150 million penalty reflects the seriousness of the allegations against Twitter, and the significant new compliance measures imposed as a result of the proposed settlement will help deter further deceptive tactics that violate privacy.&#8221; threaten the user.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twitter in the US has been fined $150m (\u00a3119m) after law enforcement officials accused Twitter of illegally using user data to sell targeted advertising. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department say Twitter violated an agreement with regulators, court documents showed. Twitter had vowed not to share personal information, such as phone numbers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.1 (Yoast SEO v18.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Twitter fined $150m in US for selling users&#039; data - Tahrir News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/05\/28\/twitter-fined-150m-in-us-for-selling-users-data\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Twitter fined $150m in US for selling users&#039; data\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Twitter in the US has been fined $150m (\u00a3119m) after law enforcement officials accused Twitter of illegally using user data to sell targeted advertising. 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