Twitter Pressured By The FTC

The Federal Trade Commission has required Twitter to to create a security program which will be monitiored by the government for ten years. This was the first time that the FTC has used its enforcement powers against a social network. Twitter agreed to the terms in order to avoid a civil lawsuit from the FTC.

The safety of Twitter users private information was the chief concern of the FTC. David Vladek, head of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection said, "When a company promises consumers that their personal information is secure, it must live up to that promise."

Two security breaches of Twitter include the hacking of Barack Obama's account, which included fake offers for $500 worth of free gasoline, and Twitter employees personal e-mails were compromised at one point in time. The action taken by the FTC may lead to increased scrutiny of social networking site's ablility to protect user private information.