Twitter faces $250m fine after US data probe
Twitter said it is being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for alleged violations of a law that prevents it from using personal data to target ads.
In a regulatory filing, Twitter said it received a draft FTC complaint alleging data violations, which is provided by users for security purposes, between 2013 and 2019.
It is expecting a penalty of between $150m and $250m in settlement charges, and has already set aside $150m of that estimate.
Twitter had said at the time it was using personal details, such as phone numbers and email addresses, to secure users’ accounts but inadvertently used them to target advertising.
The revelation follows a major hack of Twitter’s platform last month, in which the profiles of 36 famous users were taken over by cyber attackers to promote a bitcoin scam.
British citizen Mason Sheppard, 19, was charged by the US Department of Justice last week for his role in the hack.
Sheppard and two American accomplices are accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected computer.
They are said to have managed to convince people to part with more than $100,000 in bitcoin before Twitter shut down the campaign. They also downloaded the data from some of their victims, which included Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Dutch MP Geert Wilders.
In its second-quarter results last month, Twitter revealed its advertising sales had slumped amid widespread anti-racism protests and the coronavirus pandemic.
Dorsey said at the time that the firm has taken “additional steps to improve resiliency against targeted social engineering attempts” following the hack.
Total second-quarter revenue was $683m, a decrease of 19 per cent compared to last year.