Twitter to pay $150M to settle with US over privacy, security violations

(Reuters) — Twitter Inc. has settled with U.S. authorities over allegations it misrepresented the “security and privacy” of user data between May 2013 and September 2019, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Twitter will pay $150 million as part of the settlement, according to the documents.

The settlement was announced by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission.

In the complaint, the government said Twitter violated the FTC Act and a 2011 settlement with the agency by misrepresenting to users about how their information was used and how it was secured.

“Specifically, while Twitter represented to users that it collected their telephone numbers and email addresses to secure their accounts, Twitter failed to disclose that it also used user contact information to aid advertisers in reaching their preferred audiences,” the complaint said.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition to the monetary settlement, the agreement requires Twitter to improve its compliance practices.