Twitter takes excuse for personal data misuse

Social media platforms usually are known to collect the users’ information and data like email addresses and phone numbers and deliver them to the advertisement companies so that they can judge users’ preferences and send them advertisements about the items of their interest. Twitter users when visiting their timeline yesterday and today, get an alert in their timelines that say that Twitter used their personal information for tailored advertisement, the user must not panic and check out the statement from the company in which it takes excuse for the personal data misuse.

The timeline alert is actually a notice from Twitter that says:

“We may have served you targeted ads based on an email address or phone number you provided to us to secure your account.”

The notice has a “learn more” icon at the left bottom corner. By clicking this, the alert links to the Twitter Help Center Article that reads an apology statement which is an excuse from the platform itself. It also gives the timeline of events that led to the settlement with FTC. The company also told that it used the private data until September 2019 and since then they are no more using the email addresses and phone numbers for the advertisement purpose. It offered a link to a form to contact Twitter’s Office of Data Protection for any question about the issue.

The acceptance of Twitter that it has used personal information for the purpose of targeted ads is in reference to the opposition of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Twitter finally reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over its use and spreading of the users’ email addresses and phone numbers for the targeted advertisement of different brands and services.

Twitter acknowledges the fact that the users provide their extremely personal data and information to their social media platform and rather than keeping it with them, they used it for the benefit of the advertisement companies and used it for other purposes and didn’t bring this act to users’ knowledge. It also cleared that the email addresses and phone numbers have just been used, they have not been forwarded to the advertisement companies so users need not worry about it.

The use of personal data by social media platforms is really a bad gesture when it is even not in the knowledge of the users. Twitter did a good thing now to apologize for its mistake. Let’s see if the users will keep on trusting them or will shift to other platforms for their information breach.

Also Read: Twitter’s Developer Conference Returns after a Seven-Year Break