Twitter Agrees to Pay $150 Million to Settle Allegations

Twitter has agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations that it failed to notify users that it was using phone numbers and email addresses to assist businesses with targeted advertising, according to a release and court filing issued by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday. "The $150 million penalty reflects the seriousness of the allegations against Twitter," said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta in the statement.

On Wednesday, the complaint was filed in California. It claims that from May 2013 to September 2019, Twitter informed users that it was only requesting emails and phone numbers for account security. However, Twitter did not inform users that their contact information would be used to assist businesses with targeted advertising, according to the filing.

"Twitter's misrepresentations violate the FTC Act and the 2011 Order, which specifically prohibits the company from making misrepresentations regarding the security of nonpublic consumer information," the filing says. The release adds that the practice violated the "European Union-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield Frameworks." 

"This practice affected more than 140 million Twitter users while boosting Twitter's primary source of revenue," FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in the release.