Twitter Is Pressurizing A Federal Judge To Toss Complaints Accusing The App Of Data Collection For Ad Targeting

Twitter is mounting more pressure on a Federal Judge to throw out complaints made against the firm.

These complaints were linked to accusations that went on to detail how the company collected the contact details of its users for security reasons. But in the end, went on to utilize it for the sake of ad targeting.

The accusations come after court filings took place at the end of last week. This is when the company was seen arguing that all details collected of its users were in line with the privacy policy outlined. But the person who brought forward the case refuses to acknowledge that.

The company mentioned in the form of a disclosure agreement that there is no truth in the recently filed case. They feel the plaintiff’s complaint is baseless and the firm did not use, sell, or share her details with those providing ads. On that note, they feel the time has come for the complaint to be dismissed.

Twitter's response arises after the filing of a lawsuit by a Maryland citizen, just days after Twitter received a staggering $150 million for misleading users. They were alleged of asking for phone numbers and email IDs for the purpose of security. But then the data was used for the purpose of ad targeting.

This lawsuit is very similar to how the FTC took against Twitter for enabling advertisers to follow and target users with the information provided to them without any form of consent. These details were taken by the app for the purpose of authentication but as you can tell, were used for other purposes.

Twitter tried to justify the behavior by calling it a huge mistake and is not quite sure how it went into the ad platform that enabled firms to utilize their own lists for the sake of marketing.

The recent lawsuit is holding Twitter accountable for violating its own policies and taking profits for unfair practices so that ads could be targeted on the app. But in August, Twitter came back arguing. They claim the plaintiff was not harmed by this behavior and hence the case needed to be dropped. But her lawyers argued that harmed or not, she had every right to fight because this was her data and it belonged to her only.

They even claim that the app must be held accountable for such behavior as sharing sensitive details for their own unlawful means is not justified.

Twitter was seen boldly declaring how the complaint filed speaks of Twitter using the user’s details for advertising. But it fails to mention anything about Twitter promising not to use such details for the sake of advertising.

The person who filed the case is named Kim Price. She is expected to hold a hearing on the matter in November of this year. So until then, we’ll just have to wait and watch what the courtroom decides.


H/T: MediaPost

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