In an upgrade to its privacy policy, X, formerly known as Twitter, will gather biometric data on its users, such as a snapshot of their faces.
People who have subscribed to its subscription service, X Premium, can give a selfie and photo ID for verification.
X may also gather work and educational history, according to the policy.
This is to “recommend potential job opportunities for you to share with potential employers when you apply for a job.”
It has been suggested that X may wish to provide recruitment services.
According to sources, X Corp purchased Laskie, a tech hiring agency, in May. It was the first takeover of a company since Elon Musk paid $1 billion for Twitter, as it was known at the time last year for $44 billion (£34.7 billion)
The revised privacy policy will go into effect on September 29th.
According to the policy, “We may collect and use your personal information (such as your employment history, educational history, employment preferences, skills and abilities, job search activity and engagement, and so on) to recommend potential jobs for you, to share with potential employers when you apply for a job, to enable employers to find potential candidates, and to show you more relevant advertising.”
According to Liberty Vittert, professor of data science practice at Washington University in St. Louis, the move is consistent with X’s efforts to create “more targeted and individual experiences for users” and competing platforms like LinkedIn.
However, she stated that users “must absolutely” accept the change
be extremely aware of,” saying that it could be abused by employers in ways such as exploiting tweets, retweets, or accounts followed to affect hiring decisions.
According to Dr. Stephanie Hare, a digital ethics researcher, the data collection “is a massive data grab, though with your consent,” and because it is not mandatory for users, she does not believe the move is concerning in terms of civil liberties.
According to X, the collection of biometric data – data relating to a person’s bodily traits such as a facial scan or fingerprint – is only available to X Premium customers.
“X will give them the option to provide their government ID, combined with a selfie, to add a verification layer,” the business told the BBC.
“Biometric data may be useful.”
For matching purposes, data can be collected from both the official ID and the selfie photograph. This will also let us tie an account to a real person, if they desire, by processing their government-issued ID. This will also assist X in combating impersonation attempts and making the platform more safe.”
Mr. Musk also restated X’s promises to allow users to make video and audio calls. He said that the feature “works on iOS, Android, Mac, and PC” and that no phone number is required.
“X is the most effective global address book,” he asserted.
However, no timetable was provided for when the new calling capability will be accessible.
Mr. Musk wants to make X into an “everything app,” a one-stop shop for certain exclusive services; nevertheless, the creation of new features and other revisions to the privacy policy to enable them may continue. Thedailycourierng news for more