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Twitter has been facing a lot of issues lately, and not all of them are tied to a certain billionaire whose name rhymes with pod. The social media platform has also been in the midst of an active lawsuit, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way, it’s important to note that they just settled that lawsuit to the tune of 150 million. dollars after admitting that it violated user privacy and used phone numbers for targeted advertising.
Many social media platforms implemented two-factor authentication some time ago, and Twitter was no different. However, one thing that sets Twitter apart is that it ended up using the phone numbers and email addresses users gave them to start targeting them with ads. This happened over a six-year period between 2013 and 2019, everything was considered and taken into account.
Twitter claims that this data was sent into marketing funnels by accident, but despite the fact that this is the case, it seems strange that a social media company would do something that benefits it so greatly by chance. The social media platform might actually be grateful to settle for $150 million due to the fact that it’s the kind of thing that could potentially make it better than Facebook which had to pay $5 billion to l time when this scandal and lawsuit first appeared.
The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission agreed that it was an appropriate fine given the violations, and it also demanded that Twitter allow third parties to audit its privacy program. It’s the latest in a series of hefty fines levied against big tech companies, but the continued prominence of privacy breaches indicates they may not have the intended effect. Many tech companies may even view it as a cost of doing business, in which case the fines won’t help reduce their tendency to treat their users’ privacy with such a laissez-faire approach.
Read next: More chaos around Twitter as shareholders sue Elon Musk and company over mishandling acquisition deal
