Twitter may have to pay hundreds of millions in fines for privacy screw-up

As far as mistakes go, Twitter's notorious two-factor authentication boondoggle could end being a costly one. 

Buried deep inside the company's Monday 10Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission is a note that the social media giant might end up on the receiving end of up to $250 million in fines. At issue was Twitter "inadvertently" (it swears) using users' phone numbers for advertising from 2013 to 2019 — numbers that were only provided for security purposes. The Federal Trade Commission apparently didn't take kindly to that, and sent a draft complaint Twitter's way on July 28.

For those blessed to not remember every single Twitter privacy scandal, it's worth a reminder just how problematic the 2019 revelation that Twitter matched some users to advertisers' marketing lists based on their 2FA numbers actually was.  Read more...

More about Twitter, Privacy, Social Media, Two Factor Authentication, and Tech

from Mashable https://mashable.com/article/twitter-ftc-investigation-fines-250-million-2fa-advertising/
via Middlesbrough