Twitter revealed at present (for ‘transparency’s sake), that it had inadvertently handed over telephone numbers and electronic mail addresses used for account safety over to third-party entrepreneurs in its Tailored Audiences system. The difficulty was rectified by September 17th, in keeping with the agency.
“Tailored Audiences is a version of an industry-standard product that allows advertisers to target ads to customers based on the advertiser’s own marketing lists (e.g., email addresses or phone numbers they have compiled). Partner Audiences allows advertisers to use the same Tailored Audiences features to target ads to audiences provided by third-party partners,” Twitter defined on Tuesday. “When an advertiser uploaded their marketing list, we may have matched people on Twitter to their list based on the email or phone number the Twitter account holder provided for safety and security purposes. This was an error and we apologize.”
Social media companies have confronted scrutiny for unintended information leaks like this one over the previous few years, and Twitter’s gaffe is only one extra so as to add to the rising pile.
