FTC Bars Twitter “For 20 Years From Misleading Consumers” About Privacy After 2009 Hacks

The FTC settled a lengthy investigation into Twitter's lax security practices and protection of user accounts after two high-profile hacking incidents in 2009. The first one, which occurred in January, 2009 , compromised 35 high-profile accounts, including those of President Barack Obama, Bill O'Reilly, Britney Spears, the Huffington Post, and Facebook. According to the FTC: 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. The other attack occurred in April, 2009, and involved a hacker gaining access to a Twitter employee's email account, CEO Evan Williams' wife, which stored her administrative password . The hacker in question was the Frenchman who goes by the handle Hacker Croll. (Later, this was the same hacker who sent us c<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/16/twitters-internal-strategy-laid-bar