Posted on 08/04/2020 8:48:33 AM PDT by bitt
Twitter is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission for alleged privacy violations, another setback for a company that has struggled in recent years to protect private user data and account security.
The FTC is probing the company for using phone numbers uploaded for security purposes to target people with advertising — a potential violation of a 2011 consent decree in which Twitter agreed to better protect personal data, the company said Monday in a regulatory filing. The probe may lead to a "probable loss" of $150 million to $250 million, the San Francisco-based company said.
"The matter remains unresolved and there can be no assurance as to the timing or the terms of any final outcome," Twitter said.
Twitter's 2011 settlement with the FTC barred the company for 20 years from "misleading consumers about the extent to which it protects the security, privacy, and confidentiality of nonpublic consumer information." The agreement sprang from a 2009 hack of the social media platform that allowed intruders to send out phony messages from any account, among other issues. Under the settlement, the company also had to honor users' privacy choices and faced fines of as much as $16,000 per violation of the order in the future, the FTC said at the time.
A spokeswoman for the FTC declined to comment.
Twitter's shares fell about 1% in extended trading after closing at $36.39 in New York. The stock has gained 14% this year.
"Following the announcement of our Q2 financial results, we received a draft complaint from the FTC alleging violations of our 2011 consent order," a Twitter spokesperson said. "Following standard accounting rules we included an estimated range for settlement."
The FTC has been fining big tech platforms in recent years for data lapses, including the recent record $5 billion
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
p
More than one way to skin the cat...
Oh, darn!
Twitter is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.
Fear not they already paid the right people the fix is in.
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