A lawsuit filed this week in San Francisco federal court alleges Twitter is "surreptitiously eavesdropping" on people who send private messages on the social media service in violation of federal and state privacy laws, USA Today reports.
The lawsuit alleges Twitter is "systematically intercepting, reading and altering" messages without the knowledge or consent of users.
For example, Twitter scans messages to replace a URL being sent with a custom hyperlink of its own. The lawsuit alleges Twitter does that to show it's the source of the traffic and generate "better advertising rates."
"We believe these claims are meritless and we intend to fight them," Twitter said in an emailed statement.
The Twitter lawsuit is being brought by Jay Edelson's firm, Edelson PC, which specializes in suing technology companies for alleged privacy violations.
University of Washington law professor Ryan Calo says the Twitter lawsuit will not succeed for two reasons: Either the judge will decide an algorithm changing links or scanning for keywords is no different than a spellcheck or other automated program that people don't object to or the plaintiffs will not be able to demonstrate harm that a court would remedy.
