Twitter has agreed to pay a $150 million fine to settle allegations that it had violated the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules by using personal data for targeted advertising without obtaining users’ prior consent, for over six years. In addition to the monetary fine, the social media giant was ordered to change its practices to comply with the law.

According to the FTC, Twitter collected the telephone numbers and email addresses of over 140 million of its users. Twitter represented to its users that the data is used to secure their accounts but failed to disclose that it is also used for advertisements. The FTC also pointed out that advertising is one of Twitter’s main revenue generators. Of its $3.4 billion revenue in 2019, about $3 billion were generated from advertising.

CLICK HERE to read the FTC’s press release in the matter of U.S. v. Twitter, Inc.