Discussion

• help.twitter.com help.twitter.com on x

  Personal information and ads on Twitter

• @twittersupport @twittersupport on x

  We recently found that some email addresses and phone numbers provided for account security may have been used unintentionally for advertising purposes. This is no longer happening and we wanted to give you more clarity around the situation: https://help.twitter.com/...

• @drewharwell Drew Harwell on x

  Perhaps, and I'm just spitballing here, the database Twitter uses to guard the security of people around the world could be separate from the one selling us stuff? Also, maybe they could tell us about this aw-shucks whoopsy-daisy sooner than 21 days after it's been addressed? htt…

• @donie Donie O'Sullivan on x

  ‼️‼️ This same *mistake* was part of the FTC's complaint against Facebook that resulted in a $5 billion fine. Now Twitter has done the same thing. https://twitter.com/...

• @jeffjohnroberts Jeff Roberts on x

  This is the same crap Facebook pulled. Who will be the next caught abusing 2FA? (Google? Amazon?) https://twitter.com/...

• @firefox @firefox on x

  Take less. Keep it safe. No secrets. Sure, it's our data promise, but it's also our advice to other tech companies. https://blog.mozilla.org/... https://twitter.com/...

• @evacide Eva on x

  Oops! Twitter “unintentionally” used the information it got from you to secure your account in order to make money. This kind of behavior undermines people's willingness to use 2FA and makes them less secure in the long run. https://twitter.com/...

• @kateconger Kate Conger on x

  taking people's security info and using it to sell ads is a huge bummer and erodes trust. FB did this a while back too and it's the worst https://help.twitter.com/...

• @axbom Per Axbom on x

  Two learnings here. 1. Avoid using SMS for two-factor authentication. 2.Don't readily give away your phone number. It's one of the unique trackable identifiers of you as an individual, and often not necessary for a commercial relationship. https://techcrunch.com/...

• @runasand Runa Sandvik on x

  People should not have to pay for security features, such as two-factor authentication. Not with money and not with their personal information. https://www.vice.com/...

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  Well the joke's on Twitter because I've still never seen a relevant ad here https://twitter.com/...

• @slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x

  Nothing used for advertising purposes is “unintentional” when it comes to social networks. Using your information for advertising is literally their business model. https://twitter.com/...

• @can Can Duruk on x

  Data is a liability, Twitter edition. Phone numbers stored for 2FA ends up in advertising hellhole. The more you accrue, the more someone inside your org will find a way to abuse it. https://help.twitter.com/...

• @campuscodi Catalin Cimpanu on x

  Twitter conveniently said it couldn't tell how many users were impacted by this issue. ...because logs don't work for Twitter like they work everywhere else

• @tonyromm Tony Romm on x

  NEW: Twitter says phone numbers provided for security purposes may have been inadvertently used for targeted ads, raising possibility of FTC violation since Facebook got dinged for doing similar https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @gcluley Graham Cluley on x

  Woah.... wot? https://twitter.com/...

• @downwithdamon Damon J. Kecman on x

  over a month ago? and we're just now hearing about it? wtf https://twitter.com/...

• @chetfaliszek Chet Faliszek on x

  Meanwhile Facebook just says this is how they do business and changed their terms to allow them to use the 2 factor phone number in advertising. They did that because in Zuck's unmatched wisdom... he is all about privacy. https://twitter.com/...

• @jgamblin Jerry Gamblin on x

  “It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.” https://twitter.com/...

• @josephfcox Joseph Cox on x

  Facebook confirmed it did something similar last year ( https://techcrunch.com/... ) ~~~Stop taking information provided by users deliberately for security and then use it for advertising~~~

• @ashk4n Ashkan Soltani on x

  Y tu Twitter? (using personal information collected under the guise of security for ad profiling) Note this was one of the counts in the recent FTC @Facebook complaint. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @rmac18 Ryan Mac on x

  I miss the old days when Twitter only misused your phone number so you could get hacked. https://twitter.com/...