US hits Twitter with $150 mn fine over privacy breach

Twitter agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations the platform gave advertisers some user information that was supposed to be employed to strengthen account security, US authorities said Wednesday.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice accused Twitter of taking phone numbers or email addresses provided to tighten privacy and then letting advertisers use the details to make money.

“Twitter obtained data from users on the pretext of harnessing it for security purposes but then ended up also using the data to target users with ads,” commission chair Lina Khan said in a release.