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Twitter 'Unintentionally' Used Some Customer Data Provided for Account Security for Advertising Purposes

Tuesday October 8, 2019 3:27 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Twitter's support account today announced that Twitter used some customer email addresses and phone numbers that were provided for account security for advertising purposes, which Twitter says was done "unintentionally."

More specifically, email addresses and phone numbers were used in Twitter's Tailored Audiences and Partner Audiences advertising systems. Tailored Audiences is a feature that's designed to let advertisers target ads to customers based on the advertiser's marketing lists, while Partner Audiences is similar.

According to Twitter, when an advertiser uploaded a marketing list, it "may have matched" people on Twitter to their list based on the email or phone number the Twitter account holder provided for security purposes.

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://t.co/bBLQHwDHeQ
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) October 8, 2019

Twitter says that it "cannot say with certainty" how many people were affected, and the company has issued an apology. "We're very sorry this happened and are taking steps to make sure we don't make a mistake like this again," reads a help document.

Personal data was not provided externally with partners or other third parties, and as of September 17, the issue has been fixed and phone numbers and email addresses collected for account security are no longer being used for advertising.

Tag: Twitter

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

keysofanxiety

1 week ago

All these BIG Tech Companies do WHOLE lot of this "Unintentionaly"
Including Apple!!

Source for when Apple used account security customer data for advertising purposes please.

Rating: 15 Votes

BWhaler

1 week ago

People should go to jail for these lies. No corporate shield. Individual accountability.

Rating: 11 Votes

-DMN-

1 week ago

All these BIG Tech Companies do WHOLE lot of this "Unintentionaly"
Including Apple!!

Rating: 9 Votes

GeoStructural

1 week ago

Yeah, right.

Rule No. 1: Do not provide your phone number to Social Media sites. Also, use a secondary email address.

I was born January 1, 1900 as far as all my social media is concerned.

Rating: 9 Votes

eicca

1 week ago

Whoopsies. Deary me, who would ever do such a thing on purpose? Perish the thought.

Rating: 6 Votes

keysofanxiety

1 week ago

Yeah, right.

Rule No. 1: Do not provide your phone number to Social Media sites. Also, use a secondary email address.

I was born January 1, 1900 as far as all my social media is concerned.

What do you use for 2FA?

Rating: 5 Votes