1 yr. ago • 96%

X wants permission to start collecting your biometric data and employment history

www.theverge.com X wants permission to start collecting your biometric data and employment history

X is expanding the amount of data it collects.

“Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes,” the privacy policy reads. It doesn’t include any details on what kind of biometric information this includes — or how X plans to collect it — but it typically involves fingerprints, iris patterns, or facial features.

X Corp. was named in a proposed class action lawsuit in July over claims that its data collection violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit alleges that X “has not adequately informed individuals” that it “collects and/or stores their biometric identifiers in every photograph containing a face” that’s uploaded to the platform.

80 comments

Stop using Twitter.

Stop using Reddit.

Stop using FaceBook.

Stop using Instagram.

Just stop, and they will have to stop.

The wheels don't turn if the rats stop racing.

182
- I'm doing my part!
  
  32
- I have
  
  But so many stay on those shit sites.. ._.
  
  15
  
  At this point I'm actively evangelizing fedi platforms as functional replacements-
  
  Insta-> pixelfed
  
  birdsite-> mastadon/firefish/misskey
  
  fb-> friendica
  
  reddit-> lemmy etc
  
  The only thing meta has that's worth anything to me is... my friends and family all have accounts there, it's the only means I have of staying in touch with some of them. If I convince half of them to migrate it's a win-win
  
  4
- You forgot to mention the big dogs. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft... much harder to escape... and we need to.
  
  But yeah, Musk, Zuck, and Huff can fuck off.
  
  11
  
  You're never going to get the corps to stop sucking each other off. Microsoft is inescapable in business sectors as of right now. Doing without Amazon or Google requires a moderate amount of willpower. The biggest issue is the sheer number of people who just don't give a fuck.
  
  "Babe, these corporations want to enslave our children, please stop buying the coffee"
  
  "I can't its so good, they won't imprison our children."
  
  Fucking shoot me.
  
  8
- I am so glad I have stopped using reddit entirely. Lemmy feels like a better community anyway, and the decentralized nature of it is awesome.
  
  9
- Got the list down to only Twitter. I wish Lemmy had more local users otherwise I’d ditch Twitter.
  
  But I do my part by blocking advertisements. If I spend 20 minutes blocking ads I won’t see any for a few weeks.
  
  7
  
  Mastodon instead of twitter maybe?
  
  15
- Has anybody here tried to file a GDPR deletion request with Twitter?
  
  3
  
  I have never used Twitter, so no.
  
  1
X Corp is slowly moving to fulfill any evil corp prophesy that we thought are only limited to fictional writing. The name (X Corp) too is straight out of some dystopian novel.

126
- With the most cartoonishly villainous magalomaniacal narcissist for a CEO, not exactly unexpected.
  
  39
  
  The media helped build his ego up for years.
  
  What a sad, shameful shit show that was.
  
  7
- Elon looks and acts a whole lot like the evil cunt business man villain in 5th element Zorg.....
  
  11
  
  Except Zorg was smart!
  
  (And how dare you compare the looks of Elon to our glorious genius chameleon actor lord and savior Gary Oldman!?!? 🫨)
  
  11
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0mO6UY6uTg
  
  0
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=r0mO6UY6uTg
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
  
  8
He's trying to build the US equivalent of WeChat without having the government on his side.

Aaaand now I just have a new worst fear.

58
- Oh I'm pretty sure he's planning on selling your biometric data to the government.
  
  22
- without having the government on his side.
  
  Why do you think they haven't?
  
  16
- Definitely with the government on their side. It's a fascist regime man
  
  -4
  
  They're not requiring me to be on Xitter.
  
  Yet.
  
  7
Not a good decision from Elon here.

46
- People will say yes without thinking. It’s a good decision if you don’t care for the longevity of the app.
  
  43
Well, X can fuck right off.

28
Judging by the number of people who use Facebook, by far the most people don't care about these things. In my experience it's not even always ignorance, because even if you tell them, they still don't care.

The sheep will ruin the world, by not giving a shit, if they can have a bit of convenience for "free".

26
- “But I cannot leave Facebook, I will miss out on what everyone is faking in their miserable lives” /s
  
  24
  
  Exactly.
  
  3
- 100% this.
  
  1
- I still have my FB amount and barely use it. I need it to search random hotties I see at work
  
  0
  
  To find selectively misleading info at best, or decidedly fake at worst.
  
  1
Permanently Deleted

20
Twitter needs to be removed from app stores. Stop using Twitter on the website. Certain things should just fail. This is one of those things.

18
What better way to pay off his massive amount of debt than to sell off everyone’s biometric data.

16
I didn't even like twitter before it was taken over by a megalomaniac, let alone the garbage site it's become

15
Is there any information on how he plans to obtain biometric data? My assumption was that, with iPhones for example, all biometric data stays on device encrypted via the Secure Enclave. Is that even something X could access?

14
- I think that's why the article mentions the lawsuit. Apart from future collection, it appears X is scanning eyes from photos people post on X and retaining that information.
  
  17
  
  So is it just new pics going forward or did it retroactively go back and get Twitter’s stuff too? Or didn’t they like recently “delete” that? This is sus af
  
  1
- Biometric data can come from the phone itself, like a camera scanning your retina.
  
  How does he expect to get employment history, though? Does that even show up in a background check?
  
  1
This was inevitable since Elon’s original shitpost tweet about wanting to buy Twitter and “authenticate all real humans”. Presumably to differentiate them from bots (including AI bots).

Problem I have with this (lol let’s just focus on this one thing right here for a sec) is that there’s absolutely no telling what exceptions Xitter will make and for who. No way to verify it

We can probably expect to see a heck of a lot more of this stuff in future, beyond Xitter and on many other places on the internet, once the scale of the AI problem grows and/or is understood. Perhaps eventually the expectation will be that every piece of posted content will have to be cryptographically signed with a “real human”s identifier(s)

So yeah that’d be the death of the anonymous and pseudonymous internet. It sucks. I don’t see any other way around it, though I will say I’ve already had some decent conversations with entities I know to be characters from LLM output

13
- The death of anon on that website. Xwitter is not The Internet.
  
  5
  
  Oh, sorry, I didn’t make it clear but that prediction was following on from the third paragraph. Unfortunately I think this is going to be part of a bigger trend
  
  4
Lol eat shit Elon. I deleted my account and moved to Mastodon the day he walked into Twitter HQ with that stupid fucking sink.

12
- Permanently Deleted
  
  2
Twitter can fuck off

11
10
This is the best summary I could come up with:

The social network has updated its privacy policy to include carveouts for “biometric information” and “employment history,” as spotted by Bloomberg.

X Corp. was named in a proposed class action lawsuit in July over claims that its data collection violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

The lawsuit alleges that X “has not adequately informed individuals” that it “collects and/or stores their biometric identifiers in every photograph containing a face” that’s uploaded to the platform.

According to findings from app developer Steve Moser, X plans on rolling out support for passkeys, which can use your device’s fingerprint, facial recognition, or PIN to log in to your account.

The platform rolled out the beta of a hiring feature for companies last week and also plans on adding video and audio calls with “no phone number needed.”

The current privacy policy, which you can read here, makes no mention of the collection of biometric data or information related to employment history.

The original article contains 302 words, the summary contains 159 words. Saved 47%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

9
Pretty sure LinkedIn already called dibs on selling our employment data.

8
I'm not worried about Twitter. I'm worried about other platforms following suit. What if we get to the point where the power company wants your biometric data before they'll let you pay your bill?

8
- I already feel like we're close with having to add your bank account information into some online account. (I kid, I kid)
  
  But there is evidence of this becoming more pervasive over time. One of the things that made me buy a house instead of continuing to rent is I actually looked at the prospective lease and they wanted to store biometric data on my fucking dog supposedly so they could tell whose dog was leaving what poops on the ground over at the park. 🙄
  
  2
- It's called X
  
  -11
Nnnnnnnnnnnnnn...

6
I don't understand where he is going. People say he wants to make a clone of WeChat but we're not in China and I'm sure such a universal application can work in the US or in Europe.

5
- Facebook/Meta already does everything he says he wants to add to 'X', which is mainly some sort of paypal-like payment system.
  
  3
- We're not in china but this technocratic dictatorship is happening all around the world, it's just a matter of time. In Brazil we already have a government app which centralizes your info so that you only have access to some public services if you send them things like selfie/id and driver's license/link you bank account/vaccination burocracy shit, etc. and by doing that you get ranks like bronze/silver/gold which then you have access to those public (or free) services.
  
  Not only that but Brazil already named it's CBDC, it's called Drex, in collaboration with Amazon and Ethereum it'll enter the market very soon and It's all part of the world domination plans leaded by those ponerologic psycopaths.
  
  1
Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act*

Illinois, the gem of the heartland!
4
but….why? of all the things to care about with that dying husk of a platform, what could suddenly make biometric information such an interest to them?

4
- If he's going to make an 'American WeChat' then having this data is necessary. If you aren't familiar with WeChat it's a social media app from China that's basically the default application for banking, videos, posts, 2FA, etc. It's hugely popular in China. Of course, whether or not he should even be allowed to get this info or how viable making an American WeChat is, is a completely different story.
  
  12
  
  Why the fuck would anyone want their social media tied to their banking? Data leaks are already harmful enough without that link.
  
  13
- The same reasons he cares about anything, more money and more power. I'm sure there's a lot of unscrupulous buyers for such data.
  
  4
- It is the most reliable way (currently) to identify people.
  
  3
  
  That's just a smoke screen. The website benefits from bots, and there are considerably less intrusive ways to verify people. We're not talking about a high security clearance government website here. Twitter is where people go to post inane ramblings.
  
  3
There's a no for me, dawg.

4
i like now every change twitter makes there is verge article about it and somehow it get this much upvotes here . i just scrolled for 5 minute now i know twitter shadow banning is back and this lol.

4
vIsIoNaRy!

3
Well, Elon did warn us that X is “more”.

2
As much as I'm not a fan of what Twitter and social media platforms are doing, I think this is non-news with a misleadingly bad sounding headline.

Sure, they'll collect employment history if you use them to search for a job, and sure they'll collect fingerprint hashes and the like if you choose to use that to sign in, but from the sounds if it unless you specifically use those features that they're working on you're not effected.

2
Of course it does

2
Who the fuck is uploading their resume on twitter? People are dumb AF.

2
..how are they even planning on collecting this data? If they could see fingerprint data this'd be a massive vulnerability in ios & android.

1
X corp, a good name for a devil company ruled by a devil person

1
Every day I thank god I left that shithole of a site

1
Damn i have a Twitter account somewhere. Never uploaded anything at least

1
Lmao, that's hilarious

1
and the further dystopia has finally arrived!

we live in a society

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