Micro-blogging platform Twitter on Wednesday, 7 August, said that it ‘may have’ used user data for targeted ads without permission due to issues with Twitter's settings.
News agency Reuters quoted the company as saying that it had recently discovered the issues and fixed them on Monday, although it hasn't yet determined what may have caused the issue.
Twitter said that those who clicked or viewed an advertisement for a mobile application and subsequently interacted with the mobile application since May 2018, might have been the ones affected.
“If you clicked or viewed an advertisement for a mobile application and subsequently interacted with the mobile application since May 2018, we may have shared certain data (e.g., country code, if you engaged with the ad and when, information about the ad, etc) with trusted measurement and advertising partners, even if you didn’t give us permission to do so.”Twitter statement
Consumer data has often been used as a powerful tool for targeting audience for specialised advertising. Big tech firms, in fact, have been under scrutiny over selling user data to advertisers for a couple of years now.
Twitter said that those who want to know if they were personally affected, it is still conducting investigation to determine who may have been impacted and will share if it finds more information that is useful.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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