Twitter says an attacker used its API to match usernames to phone numbers

Re:Twitter says an attacker used its API to match usernames ... by markovbot on Wednesday February 05, 2020 @02:05PM (#22250009)

Unlikely to succeed. This sort of invasive, drag-net data collection without user knowledge or consent is considered standard practice.

All twitter users "agreed" to it when they created their account (via the legal fiction that humans read and agree to terms of service)

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Re:Twitter says an attacker used its API to match usernames ... by jdc on Wednesday February 05, 2020 @02:55PM (#22250424)

I'm not convinced that "standard practice" is a sufficient legal defense.

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Re:Twitter says an attacker used its API to match usernames ... by cmcd on Wednesday February 05, 2020 @02:23PM (#22250145)

I didn't create a twitter account but my information could have been leaked via this process.

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Re:Twitter says an attacker used its API to match usernames ... by markovbot on Wednesday February 05, 2020 @03:18PM (#22250592)

Is there some law against them collecting your information from your friends without your consent? I'm not a lawyer, just an observer of how these sort of things regularly go, and I'm going to guess that what they did here was 100% legal.

Obviously this is morally abhorrent, but in the US the laws are written to protect large corporations like Twitter, not their victims.

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Re:Twitter says an attacker used its API to match usernames ... by paulddraper on Wednesday February 05, 2020 @02:56PM (#22250431)

That's not damages though.

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