Last week, X, formerly known as Twitter, updated its privacy policies to allow personal information collection, including biometric data, so as to tackle fraud and impersonation on the platform.
The revised policy is expected to go into effect on September 29, 2023.
This news came in right after the company announced the new ‘X hiring Beta’ for verified organizations in which they are allowed to feature critical roles they’re hiring for and reach relevant candidates.
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“We may collect and use your personal information (such as your employment history, educational history, employment preferences, skills and abilities, job search activity and engagement, and so on) to recommend potential jobs for you, to share with potential employers when you apply for a job, to enable employers to find potential candidates, and to show you more relevant advertising” -X (Source: Twitter) |
The privacy policy update also includes tracing and saving sensitive information such as educational history, employment preferences, skills, and engagement to give personalized job recommendations. Premium users will be asked to upload a government ID or a selfie image for cross-verification if they’re looking to get a blue tick.
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“This will additionally help us tie, for those that choose, an account to a real person by processing their Government issued ID. This will also help X fight impersonation attempts and make the platform more secure.” -X (Source: CNN) |
X did not clarify whether the policy would extend to non-paying X users in the future or encompass additional types of data beyond what can be obtained from government IDs. Furthermore, the privacy policy does not detail which users have the option to participate in or abstain from biometric data collection.
X also plans to collect information to train its machine learning and artificial intelligence models. CEO Elon Musk also tweeted about this, saying that the company will collect ‘Just public data, not DMs or anything private’ to reassure users. X has changed a lot ever since it was taken over by Musk to make it an ‘everything app.’
What are your views on this privacy update? Join the conversation in our Yes We Trust community, a free discussion group for data privacy professionals and enthusiasts, on LinkedIn: