Twitter is facing a new lawsuit involving its alleged “secret and undisclosed” use of people’s data, following revelations about the social media company’s actions identified by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.
The Department of Justice and the FTC ordered Twitter to pay $150 million in civil penalties last month for alleged data privacy breaches that occurred between 2013 and 2019, which included the collection of phone numbers and emails for security purposes. which the agencies said were also used for companies to send. targeted advertising.
A Maryland woman, Lauren Price, sued Twitter this week in a proposed class action lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Ms. Price alleged breach of contract related to Twitter’s terms of service, breach of implied contract, unfair competition law violations and unjust enrichment in a lawsuit filed by personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan.
“Twitter’s ‘unfair’ actions and practices include its misrepresentations about, and failure to disclose the purposes for which it was collecting and using, personal information, as described above, and its subsequent use of that information for profit, ” said the lawsuit. “Plaintiff and class members have suffered actual injury, including loss of money and/or property, as a result of Twitter’s unfair and/or illegal practices, understanding, disclosure, and unauthorized use of their information.” personal that has value as demonstrated by its use for targeted advertising by Twitter.”
The proposed class action lawsuit refers to the FTC’s previous complaint to support its claims. According to a federal judge’s order following Twitter’s settlement with the federal government, Twitter only agreed that the FTC’s allegations in the complaint would be taken as true for litigation brought by the US government.
Twitter declined to comment on Ms Price’s proposed lawsuit.
Questions about Twitter’s authenticity have raised the company in recent weeks. In May, billionaire Elon Musk said his impending takeover of Twitter was on hold pending details to back up the company’s claims about how many users were human versus fake or spam accounts.
Mr Musk later reiterated his commitment to the acquisition and Twitter acknowledged challenges in measuring the number of active users in a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last month.
