March 11, 2011 – The Federal Trade Commission finalized a settlement with social networking site Twitter, which resolves charges against Twitter for deceiving consumers and failing to protect their personal information. The FTC asserts that gaps in the company’s data security permitted hackers to obtain unauthorized administrative control of Twitter, thereby receiving access to nonpublic user information, private consumer tweets, and the ability to send forged tweets from any account. Among the terms of the settlement, Twitter must establish and maintain a comprehensive information security program, which will be evaluated by an independent auditor every other year for 10 years.
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