In a privacy policy change, X, formerly known as Twitter, will start collecting biometric information from its users, such as a picture of their face.
Users of its X Premium subscription service have the option of verifying their subscription by uploading a selfie and a photo ID.
Also stated in the policy is X’s right to gather employment and academic background information.
This would be to “recommend potential jobs for you, to share with potential employers when you apply for a job”.
It’s been suggested that X may want to provide recruitment services.
According to reports, X Corp purchased Laskie, a tech recruiting firm, in May. It was the first corporate takeover since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, as it was then known, last year for $44 billion (£34 point 7 billion).
The revised privacy statement will go into effect on September 29.
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.”
The action, according to Liberty Vittert, professor of the practice of data science at Washington University in St. Louis, is consistent with X’s efforts to create “more targeted and individual experiences for users” and with those of rival platforms like LinkedIn.
She cautioned users, however, to exercise extreme caution because employers could abuse the shift by using followers’ accounts, tweets, or retweets to determine who to hire.
The gathering of biometric data, which includes information about a person’s physical characteristics like a fingerprint or facial scan, is reserved for X Premium users, according to X.
The company said, according to a statement to the media that “X will give the option to provide their government ID, combined with a selfie, to add a verification layer.
“Biometric data may be extracted from both the government ID and the selfie image for matching purposes. This will additionally help us tie, for those that choose, an account to a real person by processing their government-issued ID. This will also help X fight impersonation attempts and make the platform more secure.”
Additionally, Mr. Musk reaffirmed X’s plans to allow users to make both audio and video calls. He claimed that there was no need for a phone number and that the feature “works on iOS, Android, Mac and PC”.
He asserted, “X is the effective global address book”.
The new calling feature’s availability date, though, was not specified.
As part of Mr. Musk’s goal to make X an “everything app,” a one-stop shop for a variety of services, additional features may continue to be added as well as additional updates to the privacy policy to enable them.
Source-BBC
