Lawsuit Accuses Twitter Of ‘Listening In’ On Your Direct Messages

A lawsuit asserts that Twitter “surreptitiously eavesdrops on its users’ private Direct Message communications.”

The lawsuit brought by Wilford Raney, a resident of Texas and filed by law firm Edelson PC seeks a class action standing and needs $100 a day for every user whose privacy was violated.

In accordance with the criticism, “just as a user sends a Direct Message, Twitter intercepts, reads, and, sometimes, even changes the message.

Helps Twitter raise its perceived value to third party sites and prospective advertisers.

This hindrance, in line with the suit, is a breach of the US’ Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the privacy law in California.

Twitter though believes that “these claims are meritless” and the company intends “to fight them.”

“When you have a privacy policy and the company is not being clear or transparent about what they’re doing, the reason is usually because economic gain is really their focus,” Jay Edelson, managing partner at the Edelson PC. 

“We may modify or adapt your Content in order to transmit, display or distribute it over computer networks and in various media and/or make changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to any requirements or limitations of any networks, devices, services or media.”

“We may use this information to make inferences, like what topics you may be interested in, and to customize the content we show you, including ads. Our default is almost always to make the information you provide through the Twitter Services public for as long as you do not delete it, but we generally give you settings or features, like direct messages, to make the information more private if you want.”

Seems like Twitter might have its bases covered, but we’re not lawyers.