Twitter's direct messages may not be as private as the company claims. The complaint, brought in San Francisco federal court on Monday by Texas resident Wilford Raney, accuses the service of violating users' privacy with its automatic link-shortening and redirecting practices.
"As soon as a user sends a Direct Message, Twitter intercepts, reads, and, at times, even alters the message," the lawsuit alleges.
It also provides as an example a link to a New York Times article which, when shared through a private message, is converted with Twitter's link-shortening tool to look something like "http:/t.co/CL2SKBxr1s," while the recipient still sees a full URL, like "www.nytimes.com."
According to the lawsuit, it is deceptive to users — and beneficial for the company — to send Tweeters who click on a modified link to Twitter's analytics servers first before redirecting them to the target website, like the New York Times, which will perceive that their site's traffic is coming from Twitter, which will be able to negotiate better advertising rates. Such interference, the suit claims, violates the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California privacy law.
Raney is represented by law firm Edelson PC, known for taking on high-profile tech privacy suits.
"When you have a privacy policy and the company is not being clear or transparent about what they're doing, the reason is usually because economic gain is really their focus," said managing partner at Edelson PC Jay Edelson.
Damages sought are up to $100 per day for each user who received or sent private messages and whose privacy was violated.
The suit hasn't yet been approved by a judge for class-action status.
