Elon Musk’s ‘X’ wants to collect your biometric and employment data

Twitter to Collect Biometric Information with User Consent

Twitter, now rebranded as X, has updated its privacy policy to allow the collection of biometric data like facial scans and fingerprints as well as employment history and education records.

The policy states that biometric information may be gathered with user consent for “safety, security, and identification purposes.” However, X has not specified the exact types of biometric data that will be collected.

Premium users will have the option to link their accounts to a government ID and photo for an extra layer of verification. Biometric data extracted from these could be used for matching to combat impersonation attempts, as per a statement by X to Bloomberg.

Previous Lawsuit Over Biometric Data Collection Without Consent

Earlier this year, X faced a proposed class action lawsuit alleging violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit claimed X captured, stored, and used facial scans from photos uploaded by Illinois residents without their consent or adequately informing them.

Employment History To Be Used for Job Recommendations and Advertising

Additionally, the updated privacy policy mentions X will collect other personal information like employment history, education records, employment preferences, skills, job search activity and more.

X states this data will be utilized for recommending potential jobs to users, sharing information with employers, assisting employers in finding candidates, and displaying relevant job advertisements.

This aligns with X’s recent launch of a beta hiring feature allowing companies to post job listings. X also created a dedicated @XHiring account, part of CEO Elon Musk’s vision to make X an “everything app.”

New Policy To Take Effect on September 29

The new privacy policy containing provisions for biometric and employment data collection will take effect on September 29, 2023.

X’s previous policy did not mention the gathering of such personal information. With the updated policy, X joins other social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn in collecting user data for targeted advertising and recommendations.

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