A new class action lawsuit has been posted against Twitter, accusing the social media platform of using the phone numbers and email addresses of Twitter users to boost advertising sales.
Henry Yeh, on behalf of himself and others filed a new class action lawsuit against Twitter Inc. on March 10 in San Francisco County Superior Court accusing the social media icon of allegedly making surreptitious undisclosed use of users' telephone numbers, email addresses or other alleged personal data and information for purposes not disclosed in the user agreement, and ultimately profiting from it.
Twitter conjures up familiar images for most people as the mega social media service known for "headline" type content, i.e."tweets". Members can engage with tweets either by replying, liking or otherwise, or "retweeting" or sharing a post. To use Twitter, users must register an account and provide personal information. There is no cost to members. Twitter only requires users provide an email address and phone number. Its terms and conditions state the personal information is needed solely for security and login verification purposes.
Since it's free to have a Twitter account, like other social media platforms, Twitter allows advertisers to boost "Promoted Products" on its platform. These promotions can be a promoted tweet, a promoted account, or a promoted trend which would appear at the top of the list of trending topics for the day. Advertisers also have the option to purchase targeting marketing campaigns.
In the complaint, Yeh states that through a targeting marketing program which began in 2014, Twitter shares personal data with paid advertisers allegedly without user consent. Yeh maintains this violates user privacy as Twitter purportedly has not adequately disclosed that intent, or the extent to which personal data is made available to advertisers.
The complaint contends Twitter's targeted marketing service provides lists of collected personal data to its advertisers. This targeted service gives advertisers the ability to match lists of email addresses against lists of telephone numbers by Tailored and Partner Audiences.
Tailored Audiences matches the telephone numbers and email addresses Twitter collects to the advertisers’ existing lists of telephone numbers and email addresses. The Partner Audiences tool allows advertisers to import marketing lists from data brokers like Acxiom and Datalogix and match those against the telephone numbers and email addresses collected by Twitter.
Although Twitter maintains in its Privacy Policy that personal data use is controlled by the user through settings or discretionary use such as giving permission to share with a third-party affiliate, it also states that they may also disclose personal data to their corporate affiliates in order to help operate their services and the affiliates’ services, including the delivery of ads. Twitter also makes public declaration of its description of targeting audiences in the Privacy Policy available to users at any time.
Plaintiffs, however, say in the complaint that Twitter still falls short, by sharing user email addresses and phone numbers with advertisers, because users allegedly were led to believe Twitter collected the information solely to enable them to protect their account and for account recovery and verification purposes.
Plaintiff is represented by attorneys Sophia M. Rios and E. Michelle Drake, of the firm Berger Montague PC, of San Diego and Minneapolis; John A. Yanchunis, Jean Sutton Martin, Patrick Barthle and Michael F. Ram , of the Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group, of Tampa, Florida, and San Francisco; Kate M. Baxter-Kauf and Karen Hanson Riebel, of Lockridge Grindal Nauen, of Minneapolis; and John J. Nelson and Gary M. Klinger, of Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, of Beverly Hills and Chicago.