X (née Twitter) wants to collect your biometric data and employment history

X to collect more user data as Musk teases plan to offer video and audio calls.

X, the social network that you can access at twit­ter.com, is plan­ning to collect users’ biome­tric infor­ma­tion, employ­ment history, and educa­ti­o­nal history, accor­ding to an upda­ted privacy policy. "Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biome­tric infor­ma­tion for safety, secu­rity, and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion purpo­ses, " the new policy says.

X posted the new version of its privacy policy yester­day, saying it will go into effect on Septem­ber 29. The current privacy policy that doesn’t include collec­ting biome­tric data and employ­ment history will remain in effect until Septem­ber 29.

The new policy says that X «may collect and use your perso­nal infor­ma­tion (such as your employ­ment history, educa­ti­o­nal history, employ­ment prefe­ren­ces, skills and abili­ties, job search acti­vity and enga­ge­ment, and so on) to recom­mend poten­tial jobs for you, to share with poten­tial employers when you apply for a job, to enable employers to find poten­tial candi­da­tes, and to show you more rele­vant adver­ti­sing.»

The biome­tric data and employ­ment history disclo­su­res are listed in the section, «infor­ma­tion you provide us.» The policy does not say what kind of biome­tric data X would collect. We contac­ted X about the chan­ges and will update this arti­cle if we get a response.

X to offer video and audio calls

The privacy policy chan­ges are being made as X plans to offer video and audio calls. «Video & audio calls coming to X, » owner Elon Musk wrote today. The call feature will work on iOS, Android, Mac, and PCs and will not require a phone number, accor­ding to Musk.

«X is the effec­tive global address book» for the forth­co­ming video and audio call service, Musk wrote. Musk has previ­ously descri­bed plans to turn X into an «everyt­hing app.»

The chan­ges could face scru­tiny from the Fede­ral Trade Commis­sion. Before Musk bought Twit­ter, the company agreed to sett­le­ments in 2011 and 2022 with the FTC over privacy viola­ti­ons. For exam­ple, the 2022 sett­le­ment requi­res assess­ments of risks to privacy, secu­rity, and confi­den­ti­a­lity before Twit­ter laun­ches new or modi­fied products and servi­ces.

Seve­ral of Twit­ter’s top privacy and secu­rity execu­ti­ves resig­ned in Novem­ber 2022, repor­tedly over concerns that Musk’s rapid rollout of new featu­res without full secu­rity revi­ews would violate the FTC consent decree. Musk’s massive layoffs also fueled a new FTC inves­ti­ga­tion into whet­her the company has enough resour­ces to protect users’ privacy.

Musk tries to termi­nate privacy sett­le­ment

In mid-July, Musk’s X Corp. asked a fede­ral judge to termi­nate or modify the 2022 sett­le­ment with the FTC and to prevent the FTC from depo­sing Musk. The motion clai­med the FTC’s ongoing inves­ti­ga­tion into X «has spira­led out of control and become tain­ted by bias.» A hearing on the motion is sche­du­led for Novem­ber 16.

Sepa­ra­tely, a pending lawsuit filed by a Twit­ter user in July alle­ges that X collects biome­tric data without properly notifying users in viola­tion of the Illi­nois Biome­tric Infor­ma­tion Privacy Act. The class-action compla­int was filed in Cook County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit says that since 2015, Twit­ter has used soft­ware to restrict not-safe-for-work images. The analy­sis soft­ware «makes use of the biome­tric iden­ti­fi­ers and biome­tric infor­ma­tion of any indi­vi­dual inclu­ded in each photo, » but the company has not adequa­tely infor­med users «that it collects and/or stores their biome­tric iden­ti­fi­ers in every photo­graph contai­ning a face that is uplo­a­ded to Twit­ter, » the compla­int said.