Twitter is fined millions for using telephone numbers for targeted advertising

Twitter will pay a $150 million fine for using users’ phone numbers for targeted ads. The fine was imposed by the Federal Trade Commission in the United States.

Twitter has used the phone number that users provide to secure their account to show targeted ads to affected users. Therefore, the FTC a $150 million fine on. According to the authority’s chairman Lina M. Khan, “Twitter obtained the phone numbers under the pretext of making users’ accounts more secure, but used the data to serve targeted advertisements to users,” said the chairman.

In 2019 it became known that Twitter used email addresses and telephone numbers for advertisements. The company has since discontinued this practice. According to the research, the telephone numbers of 140 million users have been used illegally for targeted advertisements. The company initially declined to say how many users were affected.

Twitter has announced that it is cooperating with the FTC and to pay the fine. In addition, the FTC has imposed a number of other requirements on Twitter. The platform will be required to offer other authentication methods that do not require users to provide a phone number. The company must also inform affected users.