The Federal Trade Commission and Twitter have reached a $150 million agreement to settle the social media company’s misuse of private data.

The FTC had accused Twitter of using users’ private data for targeted ads without their knowledge – a practice the regulator said it spans over several years.

“Companies can’t tell consumers they will use their personal information for one purpose and then use it for another… that’s the kind of digital bait-and-switch Twitter pulled on unsuspecting consumers. Twitter asked users for personal information for the express purpose of securing their accounts, but then also used it to serve targeted ads for Twitter’s financial benefit. It wasn’t Twitter’s first alleged violation of the FTC Act, but this one will cost the company $150 million in civil penalties,” the complaint, which was filed by the DOJ on behalf of the FTC, said.

The FTC and Department of Justice said that between May 2013 and September 2019, Twitter asked users for personal information to secure their accounts, but then used that information to target users with ads.

But Twitter has been here before. The complaint cited FTC’s 2010 complaint against Twitter, where the microblogging app was accused by the FTC of serious lapses in its data security that allowed hackers to obtain unauthorized administrative control of the platform. In that case, “Twitter told users that they could control who had access to their tweets and that their private messages could be viewed only by recipients.” But according to the FTC, Twitter didn’t have reasonable safeguards to ensure users’ choices were honored.

The case was later settled in 2011 on the agreement to an order that if Twitter further misrepresents “the extent to which it [Twitter] maintains and protects the security, privacy, confidentiality, or integrity of any nonpublic consumer information.” The order prohibited misrepresentations around how Twitter maintains information like email addresses and phone numbers collected from users.

Based on this order, Twitter had known that the FTC’s hammer is coming. In August 2020, the company warned investors of FTC’s probe that could potentially end in a fine of more than a hundred million dollars, per TechCrunch.

“Specifically, while Twitter represented to users that it collected their telephone numbers and email addresses to secure their accounts, Twitter failed to disclose that it also used user contact information to aid advertisers in reaching their preferred audiences,” the complaint, which was filed by the Commission said.

The complaint said users provided email addresses or telephone numbers based on Twitter’s “deceptive statements” that such information would be used for account security, like two-step authorizations.

“This practice affected more than 140 million Twitter users, while boosting Twitter’s primary source of revenue,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan in a statement.

In addition to the fine, the FTC outlined other things that Twitter is prohibited to do:

• Twitter is prohibited from using the phone numbers and email addresses it illegally collected to serve ads.
• Twitter must notify users about its improper use of phone numbers and email addresses, tell them about the FTC law enforcement action, and explain how they can turn off personalized ads and review their multi-factor authentication settings.
• Twitter must provide multi-factor authentication options that don’t require people to provide a phone number.
• Twitter must implement an enhanced privacy program and a beefed-up information security program that includes multiple new provisions spelled out in the order, get privacy and security assessments by an independent third party approved by the FTC, and report privacy or security incidents to the FTC within 30 days.

Zimbabwe has opened an international conference in a bid to win global support for its campaign to be allowed to sell its stockpile of seized ivory.

If the southern African country is not permitted to sell off its 130 tons of ivory, estimated to be worth $600 million, officials warn it may quit the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The three-day conference started Monday, 23rd May 2022 at Hwange National Park, the country’s largest wildlife park situated in south-western Zimbabwe.

Representatives from 16 African countries, as well as Japan and China from Asia, major consumers of ivory, were in attendance based on the official report.

Penultimate week, envoys from some European Union (EU) countries such as Britain, as well as the United States and Canada, were guided through heavily guarded vaults in Harare that were filled with piles of elephant tusks to win international support for legal sales of the ivory.

Zimbabwe’s effort to sell the said ivory is controversial with many conservation groups opposing it, saying any sale of ivory encourages poaching of the pachyderms, i.e. illegal killing of wildlife.

The conference “is sending a dangerous signal to poachers and criminal syndicates that elephants are mere commodities, and that ivory trade could be resumed, heightening the threat to the species,” said a coalition of 50 wildlife and animal rights organizations from across the globe in a joint statement issued the same Monday.

Southern African countries had twice been permitted to sell off their ivory stocks to Japan and China in 1997 and 2008 and those limited sales resulted in “a sharp escalation” in poaching across the continent, said the coalition.

“Legalizing the ivory trade, including authorizing another ‘one-off’ sale could have similar disastrous consequences.” the groups stated.

Zimbabwe had argued that its elephant population was growing rapidly at between 5% to 8% per year, a rate it said was unsustainable. It disclosed that the country was desperately in need of the funds from the sales of the ivory to manage its elephant population, which it said had grown to a ‘dangerous’ size.

Zimbabwe’s estimated 100,000 elephants are double the carrying capacity of its national parks, according to its parks officials. Hence, the overcrowded elephants were destroying the trees and shrubs that remained vital for them and other wildlife.

It’s noteworthy neighbouring Botswana has the world’s largest elephant population with more than 130,000. Together Zimbabwe and Botswana reportedly possess nearly 50% of the world’s elephants. The two countries are apparently struggling to cope with the booming numbers.

Opposition is coming from Kenya and other members of the African Elephant Coalition, whose 32 members are mostly East and West African countries that have fewer elephants. They argue that reopening legal international trade in ivory trade, even for a single auction, would result in increased poaching.

CITES banned the international ivory trade in 1989 to curtail poaching. In addition to banning ivory sales, CITES in 2019 also imposed restrictions on the sales of wild elephants caught in Zimbabwe and Botswana, a move that pleased some conservationists but dismayed officials struggling to manage their overcrowded parks.

There is a flourishing illegal trade in ivory in which international syndicates fund poachers to kill elephants and saw off their ivory tusks. The ivory is then smuggled overseas, where there is its demand for production of jewelry and trinkets.

Increased poaching and loss of habitat have made Africa’s elephant populations more endangered, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) stated last year.

Zimbabwe and Botswana say they are ill-equipped to deal with poachers without the money from ivory sales, especially because earnings from tourism have dwindled due to COVID—19 related travel restrictions since 2020.

Rather than encouraging poaching of wildlife, African countries ought to work towards leveraging its impact on tourism, which remains one of the greatest boosts of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) across the globe.

Hence, they are enjoined to work out modalities in this regard, by creating formidable policies and ensuring their apt implementation headlong.