Twitter Spies on You for Profit, Lawsuit Claims

This is grounds for legal action, according to the lawsuit, which was made public by Hollywood Reporter, because Twitter explicitly represents its direct message service as a private alternative to public tweets.

Twitter, however, said in an e-mailed statement that the company finds the claims as meritless, with the intention to challenge the lawsuit. According to a report from RT, the suit also claims that the site has been altering direct messages without the users’ consent.

He also notes that Twitter then masks the t.co link and instead displays a more readable version of the link to the user.

This undisclosed surveillance, the suit alleges, takes place when a user writes a direct message and includes a hyperlink.

Having a court order in place that prevents it from using URL shorteners in private messages could affect its advertising bottom line. However, in Google’s case, the judge dismissed the lawsuit by ruling that millions of gmail users are too dissimilar a class to bring a class action lawsuit.

Twitter enables a person to send private messages via Direct Message.

It seems like an innocuous maneuver – after all, there’s no indication that Twitter is actually parsing through personal conversations for content. If what the suit says is true, Twitter is automatically changing hyperlinks to boost its revenues, and that’s it. But federal law prohibiting wiretapping doesn’t make a distinction. “As soon as a user sends a Direct Message, Twitter intercepts, reads, and, at times, even alters the message”. “Nonetheless, unbeknownst to them, Twitter intercepts and reads the contents of every Direct Message.”

The lawsuit has been filed on behalf of all Americans who have sent or received DMs over the Twitter network and expects damages as high as $100 per day for each Twitter user whose privacy was breached.

The lawsuit is yet to be approved, although it should happen in the coming days as observers continue to evaluate the matter, and the privacy concerns of millions of Twitter users across the United States.

Filed on behalf of Texas resident Wilford Raney, the case is being handled by Edelson PC, a Chicago-based law firm that specializes in class action litigation related to privacy and technology.

If you recall, Twitter recently did away with its 140-character limit for direct messages. But considering how integral to its business model its receiving referral credit is, the practice will likely continue, but with Twitter simply informing its users about it going forward.