X adjusts privacy policy to be able to ask for biometric data

X, formerly Twitter, may in the future ask users to provide their biometric data. The company has adjusted its privacy policy for this purpose. The rules also appear to apply to European users, but X does not say what it wants to do with the data.

X has the privacy policy has recently been amended, but the new rules won’t become active until September 29. The company has included a new passage in the policy regarding biometric data. “Based on your consent, we may collect and use biometric data for safety, security and identification purposes,” the company wrote.

There are no concrete examples of what X wants to do with the biometric data in the privacy policy. The company does not even write down what exactly it means by biometric data; these could be fingerprints, but also photos of the user on which, for example, facial recognition is applied. X does say in a response to Bloomberg that the company wants to collect that data as a verification method for paying users. Their identity can be determined by submitting an official proof of identity, but this does not happen in all cases.

The new privacy policy also appears to apply to European users. Under European privacy law, biometrics is special personal data that may only be collected if a user gives explicit permission for this. It is not clear how X wants to request permission.

The new privacy policy also states that X will collect more information about users’ work and study history. The company would do this to ‘recommend potential job openings’, but also ‘share with potential employers when users apply for jobs’ and to enable ’employers to find potential candidates’, in addition to the fact that that information is used for personalized advertisements. There are already more known examples of this. Since last month, X has made it possible for companies to post verified vacancies on their profiles.