Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Twitter said that the Federal Trade Commission may soon fine it up to $250 million for improper use of users’ phone numbers and email addresses. The potential fines would come for violations of Twitter’s 2011 agreement with the FTC to no longer mislead consumers about how it protects their personal information.
Between 2013 and 2019, Twitter used phone numbers and email addresses provided “for safety and security purposes” to help target ads. Twitter disclosed the practice back in October, saying that it was done “inadvertently” and called it “an error.” The FTC evidently believes that Twitter misled consumers by not disclosing that their data may have been used in this way.
Twitter says that the commission sent a draft complaint on July…