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Twitter faces FTC probe, likely fine over use of phone numbers for ads:
Twitter is facing a Federal Trade Commission probe and believes it will likely owe a fine of up to $250 million after being caught using phone numbers intended for two-factor authentication for advertising purposes.
The company received a draft complaint from the FTC on July 28, it disclosed in its regular quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange commission. The complaint alleges that Twitter is in violation of its 2011 settlement with the FTC over the company's "failure to safeguard personal information."
[...] In October 2019, however, Twitter admitted that phone numbers and email addresses users provided it with for the purpose of securing their accounts were also used "inadvertently" for advertising purposes between 2013 and 2019.
In the filing, Twitter estimates the "range of probable loss" it faces in the probe is between $150 million and $250 million, although it adds that "the matter remains unresolved, and there can be no assurance as to the timing or the terms of any final outcome."
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday August 05 2020, @10:14AM (3 children)
Set an example. That conduct is inexcusable, and anyone trying to excuse it needs their head checked.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 05 2020, @02:29PM (2 children)
But . . . Twitter is critical national infrastructure!
Twitter has become the primary function of the office of president of the United States! We can't just burn it down. (or nuke it from orbit)
The government has not yet even had time to complete its 21st century modernization project to upgrade our nuclear launch command and control system so that nuclear launch orders can be received via a tweet.
But then all marketing, sales and advertising people would then need to have their head checked. And management, executives and shareholders too!
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday August 05 2020, @02:41PM (1 child)
If Twitter is critical, you may call me Jesus Christ. The only thing critical about Twitter, is that investors get some of their money back from it when it folds. Well, whatever is left after the lawyers rape everyone involved.
We had a recent article about preserving parasites. I think we've been preserving these parasites for far too long already.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 05 2020, @02:43PM
We not only preserve parasites, we feed them, and give them bonuses.
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday August 05 2020, @10:20AM
I don't think they'll care [marketwatch.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 05 2020, @02:41PM
So is this part of why we get so many robocalls?
(But I've never interacted with Twitter ever. I certainly have not given them my phone number.)
If we (as a species) could somehow manage to morally justify nuking profitable robocalls, then we might find the moral courage to view spam as evil.
Maybe those who cannot see the evil are not of the same species.
Young people won't believe you if you say you're older than Google. (born before 1998-09-03)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @04:37PM (1 child)
Wow, that is an awful lot of "inadvertent."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @11:21PM
DADT. And if caught, promise you won't do it again. Then wait until the short term memory expires.