Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, will collect biometric data on its users, such as a photograph of their face, in an update to its privacy policy.
People signed up to its subscription service, X Premium, can choose to provide a selfie and photo ID for verification.
The policy also states X may collect employment and educational history. This would be to “recommend potential jobs for you, to share with potential employers when you apply for a job”.
There has been speculation that X may want to offer recruitment services.
In May, X Corp acquired a tech recruiting service called Laskie, according to reports. It was the first takeover of a company since Elon Musk bought Twitter, as it was then known, last year for $44bn (£34.7bn)
X’s Biometric and employment data explained
The new privacy policy will come into force 29 September.
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.'”.
According to X, the collection of biometric data – a term that covers data relating to a person’s physical attributes such as a facial scan or fingerprint – is for X Premium users.
Musk has also reiterated X’s plans to give users the option to make video and audio calls. He said the feature “works on iOS, Android, Mac & PC” and that no phone number would be needed.
“X is the effective global address book”, he claimed.
However, there was no date given for when the new calling feature would be available.
Musk has an ambition to turn X into an “everything app”, a one-stop-shop for various services, as part of that the addition of extra features, and extra updates to the privacy policy to enable them, may well continue.
X Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino has said X will include features such as payments and banking.
One of the update regarding videos is the platform now supports longer videos. Previously, X only allowed videos with a maximum duration of 140 seconds or 2 minutes and 20 seconds but that has changed for premium users. Premium subscribers can now upload videos of up to 2 hours.
Since acquiring Twitter, Musk has axed the signature blue bird logo and introduced a raft of changes, including reinstating formerly banned users and scrapping the ability to block accounts.
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