X, formerly Twitter, may collect your biometric data and employment history

CNN
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X, The social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, said this week that it may collect biometric and employment information from its users — expanding the scope of personal information account holders may expose to the site.

These disclosures came in an update to the company’s privacy policy, which added two sections related to the new data collection practice.

“Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security and identification purposes,” the policy said.

Additionally, under a new section called “Job Applications,” X said it may collect users’ jobs and educational histories.

The company too It said it could collect “employment preferences, skills, abilities, job search activity, engagement, etc.” in order to suggest potential job opportunities to users, share that information with potential third-party employers or to further target users with ads.

For X Premium users, the company will provide an option to provide a government ID and selfie for verification purposes. The company may extract biometric data from both a government ID card and a selfie for matching purposes, the company told CNN in a statement.

“This will additionally help us, for those who choose, associate an account with a real person through government-issued ID processing,” according to the company. “This will also help X combat impersonation attempts and make the platform more secure.”

The changes reflect what many of the X peers already collect on a routine basis. But it does represent an expansion of the types of information that Twitter is interested in tracking. The policy amendment comes as owner Elon Musk seeks to turn the platform into an “everything app” that could include financial services and other features similar to the popular Chinese app WeChat.

Change is also happening when some regulatory initiatives around the world have begun requiring social media companies to verify the ages of their users. Many age assurance services require users to upload copies of their government-issued IDs or selfies that are then analyzed by artificial intelligence.

But on Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked an Arkansas law mandating age verification for social media platforms, just hours before it was set to take effect.