Twitter recently observed that users Email addresses and phone numbers provided for security purposes such as two-factor authentication used for advertising purposes.
The data was specifically used for advertising purposes specifically in Tailored Audiences and Partner Audiences advertising system.
The social media giant spotted the issue and fixed it on September 17, and the company confirms the “phone numbers or email addresses collected for safety or security purposes for advertising.”
It is unclear that how many users impacted with the issue and the company confirms that “No personal data was ever shared externally with our partners or any other third parties.”
“To be transparent, we wanted to make everyone aware of the issue and We’re very sorry this happened and are taking steps to make sure we don’t make a mistake like this again,” reads twitter statement.
Tailored or Partner Audiences is a type of advertisement service that let advertisers follow customers based on their marketing lists such as email addresses, usernames, website visited and mobile advertising IDs.
“We may have matched people on Twitter to their list based on the email or phone number the account holder provided for safety and security purposes. This was an error and we apologize.”
Last year Facebook spotted letting its advertisers using phone numbers and email addresses for delivering targeted ads.
In another incident, Twitter Co-founder & CEO Jack Dorsey’s account was hacked by compromising the phone number associated with the Twitter account.
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