Twitter will pay $150 million for using people’s security phone numbers to target ads

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission will receive $150 million to settle a privacy lawsuit. The complaint that led to the settlement was about the use of email addresses and phone numbers for targeted advertising. The data privacy program must be audited, as well as the fine and other restrictions.

The FTC Act and an order from a previous settlement are said to have been violated by the misrepresentations. Users were encouraged to add a phone number or email address in order to use security measures. In reality, that information was incorporated into its ad targeting data. It apologized for the practice in the year 2019. The complaint states that during that time, the company was misrepresenting how it could reuse user data in order to comply with the European Union-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield Frameworks.

The proposed settlement will help prevent further misleading tactics that threaten users' privacy, and the $150 million penalty reflects the seriousness of the allegations. The FTC fined Facebook $5 billion for violating privacy in 2019.

The new compliance measures will require the company to maintain a comprehensive privacy and information security program. After a federal court approves the settlement, it must inform anyone who joined before September 2019.

The settlement with the FTC reflects pre-existing commitments and investments in security and privacy, according to the chief privacy officer.