Security News > 2020 > August > Twitter Could Face $250M FTC Fine Over Improper Data Use

Twitter may be facing a Federal Trade Commission fine of up to $250 million, after the social media giant last year revealed the improper use of users' email addresses and phone numbers.

In its October 2019 notice about the improper data use, Twitter explained that it had matched its users to advertisers' marketing lists based on the email or phone number the Twitter account holder provided during two-factor authentication.

Twitter for its part has had its fair share of privacy issues - including a recent high-profile Twitter hack that compromised 130 accounts of high-profile users such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Apple and Uber - to promote a bogus advance-fee cryptocurrency deal.

Over the past few years, Twitter has faced other security issues: In 2018, a bug caused account passwords to be stored in plain text on an internal log; and that same year, a flaw was disclosed that enabled software developers to read users' private direct messages.

Threatpost has reached out to both Twitter and the FTC for further comment.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/twitter-could-face-250m-ftc-fine-over-improper-data-use/158014/