Elon Musk’s X wants to collect your facial data, fingerprints, employment and education details: Here’s why

Elon Musk has often boasted about how X, formerly Twitter, has always put user privacy first. The social media platform is now planning to collect users’ biometric data and education history, according to a Bloomberg report. This is a part of the updated privacy policy of X that will be implemented from September 29.

As per the report, the biometrics are for the premium users. They will also get an option to submit their government ID and an image for verification purposes. The biometric data might be extracted from both the ID and the images for matching purposes.  

When asked about the reason behind this update, X spokesperson told Bloomberg, “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.”

As per X's updated policy, “Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes”. Notably, this does not reveal what all data will it collect under the biometric data that usually includes physical characteristics like face or fingerprints. X has not revealed how it plans to collect this data.

Also Read: Twitter turnaround: From audio-video calls to X Premium, major changes Elon Musk made in X so far

As for educational details and employment history, X policy reveals that this information will be collected to recommend potential jobs to the users. It states, “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.”

Notably, X had recently created an official handle @Xhiring hinting that it is not getting into the job search vertical as well. As X’s beta feature, the platform now allows verified organisations to post job openings on their profiles.

Since Musk is fully focused on making X an everything app, he has announced that users will now be able to make audio and video calls on the platform without needing a phone number. This feature will be available on iOS, Android, Mac & PC.

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