X Corp (formerly Twitter) has updated its privacy policy to collect biometric data from premium users to prevent fraud and impersonation.
"Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes," The revised policy of X(Twitter) is expected to go into effect on September 29, 2023.
The thing is, biometric data is permanent and can't be changed. If we share that with X, it could mean lifelong privacy risks. And seriously, I can't think of a single reason why Elon needs to know where I went to high school for data security purposes.
People keep talking about leaving Twitter, but when will they actually do that? I guess they'll just keep putting up with it, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
They'll simply ask for it and people will give it in order to keep using the platform.
Google Ads asked me (a private individual) to provide my drivers license or passport in order to verify an organization's Google Ads account, or else the account will be suspended. I understand verifying the organization via governed registration records, that makes sense. But requiring an emoloyee or volunteer's passport?
Cellphone cameras are really good now, and you don't need one perfect shot, an app could record a 10 second video and use all the frames to composite an image better than a single shot.
I mean how would this work though, even assuming that technology hurdle is cleared (definitely doubting it, a slightly dark room can totally hose a cell phone photo)?
The Twitter app has to request camera use and then ask the user to do that. What possible benefit would there be for the user?
They could market it as "advanced retina security" paired with a red laser animation overlaid on the display and get users to do it voluntarily as a way to unlock the app.
If there's a photo of you anywhere on The-Platform-Formerly-Known-As-Twitter, then that's it. That's biometric data.
People have this weird idea that "biometric data" needs some special scanning process like in movies. As if some green laser needs to sweep across your body to "collect" biometric data.
A photo is all that's needed. That's it.
You read these articles that talk about "the dangers of biometrics" (in the context of facial recognition) and they often cite that the database can be hacked and people's biometric data will get stolen.
That's not a concern. Every system that captures biometric data for later use is completely different than the next system. It would be like trying to run an Android app on an iPhone.
Actually, it's very much like the pre-IBM days. There were many different computer systems that weren't compatible with each other. Biometrics is like that, but 100 times more incompatible. Each system needs a ground truth photo to generate the model/template/biometric data.
So I'll say it again, if there's a photo of you on Former-Twitter, even a profile photo, they have your biometrics.