SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Twitter says it was just an accident that caused the microblogging giant to let advertisers use private information to better target their marketing materials at users.
The social networking giant on Tuesday admitted to an "error" that let advertisers have access to the private information customers had given Twitter in order to place additional security protections on their accounts.
"We recently discovered that when you provided an email address or phone number for safety or security purposes (for example, two-factor authentication) this data may have inadvertently been used for advertising purposes, specifically in our Tailored Audiences and Partner Audiences advertising system," Twitter said.
"When an advertiser uploaded their marketing list, we may have matched people on Twitter to their list based on the email or phone number the Twitter account holder provided for safety and security purposes. This was an error and we apologize."
Twitter assures users that no "personal" information was shared, though we're not sure what Twitter would consider "personal information" if your phone number and email address do not meet the bar.
"We cannot say with certainty how many people were impacted by this, but in an effort to be transparent, we wanted to make everyone aware. No personal data was ever shared externally with our partners or any other third parties," the mea cupa reads.
"As of September 17, we have addressed the issue that allowed this to occur and are no longer using phone numbers or email addresses collected for safety or security purposes for advertising."
[...] Aside from being a violation of privacy and potential legal liability for Twitter, the incident will have the added effect of making users less safe by discouraging them from using phone numbers and email verification as additional levels of security.
All in all, this is a bad look for Twitter that isn't likely to go away any time soon.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 10 2019, @12:07PM (2 children)
You mean Obama gave Iran their own money. I guess you didn't, wouldn't or couldn't read that far.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 10 2019, @05:45PM
Kinda like that $20 in your wallet is my money. Please return it
(Score: 2) by Captival on Friday October 11 2019, @02:41AM
Libtards are always so eager to insist it was the worldwide #1 terror sponsor's own money, so it was perfectly acceptable to give it to them. Never mind why so many previous administrations, both Democrat and Republican, thought it better not to do so. The Muslim in Chief can't possibly be seen not showing favor to his special guys. After all, the most beautiful sound in the whole world is the Muslim Call to Prayer. So you just have to give the lying terrorists yet another gigantic bundle of US cash and lie to America about it not being a ransom, even though both the hostages and the Iranians openly admitting it was. When you have the MSM cheerleading everything you do, foreign collusion and interfering in sovereign nations' elections is just no big deal! Ask Israel!