A brief filed on Monday in the Northern District of California by Twitter Inc. urged the dismissal of a user’s data misappropriation case. The June-filed action argued that Twitter breached its contract with users and violated its own privacy policy by disclosing their telephone numbers and emails for advertising purposes without user consent and under the guise that it was for security functions between 2013 and 2019.
The case tracks allegations made by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), wherein the agency argued that Twitter misused more than 140 million users’ contact information. Twitter settled the suit in May, without admitting or denying fault, but agreeing to pay a $150 million fine.
Now, the social media and microblogging platform says that the private litigant’s claims are meritless. The motion first explains that part of Twitter’s core revenue stream is advertising to its account holders. Twitter says that when users sign up, they agree to the collection and use of their information for both security and marketing purposes.
The motion further clarifies that the FTC’s action took issue with the fact that the disclosure “was not repeated at the time account holders provided contact information to enable security features.”
In this week’s motion, Twitter first contends that the plaintiff lacks Article III standing because she did not allege “a particularized, concrete injury from Twitter’s use of voluntarily provided contact information to display more relevant ads, much less any threat of future harm that could support standing for injunctive relief.”
The motion further faults the complaint for failing to set forth basic facts underlying the user’s claims like which contact information she provided and which security feature she enabled. It adds that the plaintiff neither claimed to have received any interest-based ads nor, to the contrary, that she opted out of interest-based advertising. As they stand, the plaintiff’s “threadbare allegations” cannot support her claims for relief, the motion concludes.
A hearing on Twitter’s motion to dismiss is scheduled for November 14 before Judge Sallie Kim.
The plaintiff is represented by Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group and Twitter by Latham & Watkins LLP.
