With X’s big decision to use biometrics comes a desire for better privacy policies

Executives at X (Twitter) say subscribers can volunteer undefined biometrics, but the data will not be taken by X without consent as things stand.

Could it become training fodder for CEO Elon Musk’s new toy, xAI, or even a tradable resource?

One of X’s corporate feeds says biometrics is coming as an optional perk for subscribers who pay for premium X services. There’s no public delivery date for biometric ID verification but when it arrives, according to the company, people will have a strong verification option.

But despite a number of privacy policy changes that have come to light lately, none seems to address the specific question; will Musk use premium subscribers’ biometrics as a resource for xAI’s machine learning needs or use it as a transactional resource with X’s partners and affiliates.

As noted in a post on web development blog StackDiary, X’s policy for collected personal data is to use it as fertilizer for other products and services. That would be xAI.

Of course, the tempestuous Musk has a knack for actions he takes without forethought and for statements that put communities in a twist. How likely is this scenario?

As with so much today, the answer is not obvious.

X has innumerable data-transaction relationships around the globe and, at least on a quick review, it is not clear if biometrics as a class right now are forbidden from being shared or traded. (Nor is it clear whether X receives biometrics from its business partners.)

“Certain non-public personal information” is shared. X gets more specific when saying sharable data “does not include your name, email, phone number, or Twitter username.” No mention of if consent for use to identify qualifies biometrics for trading.

If responses to the clarification in X’s feed are any indication, a substantial segment of the community do not trust Musk to commission rules specific to biometrics.

Article Topics

biometric data  |  biometrics  |  data collection  |  data privacy  |  social media  |  X (twitter)