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Twitter Security. Is it ok for Twitter to mislead?
By Sean | June 28, 2010
Twitter was ordered to set up and maintain a comprehensive user information security initiative with a third-party review of it every two years for the next 10 years.
When the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Twitter over security issues they took Twitter to task over its lax security procedures enabling hackers to post statements from the accounts of US President Barack Obama and others. What seems strange to me is that if this had not happened to the President it is most likely the FTC would not have acted.
The settlement also requires Twitter to take a number of security steps to protect user data. Twitter claims to have implemented many of the FTC’s suggestions and the agreement essentially formalizes Twitters commitment to those security practices, according to US reports.
What really blows me away is the wording of one final statement posted on Computer Weekly:
“The settlement bars Twitter from misleading users about the extent to which it protects their privacy and personal information for 20 years.”
Is it just me or does that ruling imply that after 20 years it’s OK to resume misleading people. How much tax payers money was spent crafting that brilliant piece of work?
Was it OK to mislead people before the ruling? Now that the 20 year ruling has been handed down it’s not OK for Twitter to mislead for the next 20 years. What a relief! I was really worried they’d only get 10 years.
Of course there’s the issue of all the other companies for whom that ruling has not been made. What if it’s a smaller social network company that has not had the ruling handed down to them? What if they get caught misleading people but the US president was not involved? Would they only get maybe 2 years restriction from misleading people about the extent their privacy is protected?
Ignorance is easily cured with knowledge. Stupidity is hard to cure even with great pain. — Sean Wyseman
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