The United States government has announced that Twitter should pay A. $ 150 million fine To assist in the sale of targeted advertising for the illegal use of user data.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have accused Twitter of taking the phone numbers and email addresses provided by users to increase the security of their account. Allow advertisers to use this data for monetization.

“Twitter obtained the user data under the guise of using it for security purposes, but then ended up using it to target users with ads,” said Lina Khan, chair of the commission.

The personal information that users provide to technology companies and how this data is used is a recurring front of conflict between regulators and powerful companies such as Meta, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

Conflicts over privacy have led to periodic lawsuits or settlements, but critics have long called for a comprehensive overhaul of U.S. national rules on how people’s data is processed online.

During the five-year period ending in 2019, More than 140 million Twitter users have donated phone numbers or email addresses to the San Francisco-based service. Regulators said they would help protect accounts with two-factor authentication.

Security technology involves enhancing passwords with one-time text or email codes.

Unsurprisingly for users, Twitter allowed advertisers to use personal information for advertising purposes, said the FTC, which has been working with federal prosecutors to prosecute a technology company.

In addition to receiving the $ 150 million payment, Twitter will implement further measures, including periodic evaluation of the Privacy Program by an independent appraiser, the agreement said.

The deal, which will require the judge’s consent, also requires Twitter to notify anyone who joined Twitter by the end of 2019 of the deal and options for protecting their privacy.

According to the agency

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