US regulator FTC and Twitter have agreed to settle charges that the micro-blogging site failed to safeguard personal information of millions of its users.
The Federal Trade Commission, which mainly looks into anti-competitive practices, had accused Twitter of "serious lapses" in its data security that allowed hackers to access non-public user information, among other things.
In a statement on Thursday, the FTC said Twitter has agreed to settle charges that it deceived consumers and put their privacy at risk by failing to safeguard their personal information.
According to the regulator, the security lapses resulted in hackers sending out phony tweets from Twitter accounts of Barack Obama and Fox News.
As per the FTC complaint, hackers gained administrative control of Twitter twice between January and May, 2009.
"One tweet was sent from the account of then President-elect Barack Obama, offering his more than 150,000 followers a chance to win $500 in free gasoline. At least one phony tweet was sent from the account of Fox News," the statement said.\
Going by estimates, Twitter has over 75 million users worldwide.
As part of the settlement, Twitter must establish and maintain a comprehensive information security programme, which will be assessed by an independent auditor every other year for 10 years, the FTC noted.
