French court orders Twitter to change smallprint after privacy case

A Paris court on Thursday ordered Twitter to change its smallprint, according to a consumer group which accused the tech giant of having "abusive" clauses in its terms and conditions.

UFC-Que Choisir claimed victory in its case against the US social media platform, saying "the conviction has a gigantic scope for the protection of users' personal data".

The consumer association had called on the high court "to recognise the abusive or illegal nature" of 256 clauses contained in Twitter's terms and conditions that it said breached users' privacy.

In particular, UFC-Que Choisir said the court's decision guarantees Twitter users that their photos and tweets can no longer be "commercially exploited" if they have not given their consent.

"By ticking a small box to accept the terms of service, the consumer has not expressly accepted their data can be exploited," the group said.

Twitter was also fined 30,000 euros, a sum UFC-Que Choisir said was "insignificant for the social network which generated in 2017 a global turnover of 2.1 billion dollars".

The social network has one month to appeal. But "whatever his decision, this victory bodes well for similar procedures against Facebook and Google, still in progress," the group said.

Those judgments are expected in "the coming months", according to UFC-Que Choisir.

as/fka/lp/je/dl

Twitter

Facebook

GOOGLE

Related Links
Satellite-based Internet technologies

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Baidu profit up 45% on growth in news app and AI push
Shanghai (AFP) Aug 1, 2018
Chinese online search giant Baidu on Wednesday said net profit for the second quarter jumped 45 percent, fuelled by growth in its personalised news app and artificial intelligence (AI) projects. The firm logged a net income for April-June of 6.4 billion yuan ($967 million). "We had another strong quarter in Q2 with search exhibiting robust revenue growth driven by AI-powered monetisation capabilities, and Baidu feed continuing strong traffic and monetisation momentum," said Robin Li, chairman an ... read more