FTC fines Twitter $150M for using 2FA phone numbers for ad targeting
I don&#x27;t have the most optimistic outlook for this having any impact, but I really hope this sets a precedent for limiting the use of dark patterns with which companies try to tie your identity to a phone number. I think the total sum for this fine is rather myopic: it ignores the long tail of possible future data leaks and the impact it might have on the people behind the affected accounts.<p>I created my current Twitter account a few years ago and it remained dormant for a while. It was flagged as &quot;in violation of our policies&quot; despite having not made any tweets or using a handle or nickname that would cause offense to anyone. In order to resolve this, I had to enter my phone number to &quot;secure&quot; my account. I don&#x27;t know what process triggered this review, but I&#x27;ll be damned if it didn&#x27;t smell like an easy way to associate an existing marketing profile with my Twitter account. Of course, it&#x27;s vitally important to profile a service I used to keep up with industry news and post about Goban puzzles.<p>I&#x27;ve also run into similar patterns on Discord and similar platforms; &quot;Oops! Something suspicious is happening with the account [you literally just created]. Please add a phone number to your profile to proceed.&quot;<p>Although I follow a reasonable set of practices around identity&#x2F;password management, I usually architect my risk profile with a &quot;I don&#x27;t care if I lose this account&quot; approach. If that statement isn&#x27;t true, then I will happily apply all of the security measures available. However, it seems like the idea of creating &quot;I don&#x27;t care&quot; accounts is becoming increasingly difficult as we continue to invest in user marketing analytics and lower the barrier of entry to these types of technologies that do not have the consumer&#x27;s best interests in mind.