• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, January 15, 2016

A Texas resident has dropped a lawsuit accusing Twitter of eavesdropping on private messages that users send each other through the platform.

Lawyers for Wilford Raney said in court papers filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court that he is voluntarily dismissing the suit due to evidence he recently obtained from Twitter, including information that emerged in a deposition conducted last week. The papers didn't elaborate on the nature of that information.

The move resolves a dispute dating to September, when Raney alleged in a potential class-action that Twitter "surreptitiously eavesdrops" on private messages by scanning them for links to outside publications, and then automatically using its link-shortening service to replace the original links.

Raney alleged that Twitter does so in order to garner credit for the referral from outside publishers -- who will see that traffic is coming to their site through Twitter -- and to compile extra data about consumers.

Twitter acknowledges in its terms of service that it shortens links that appear in users' public streams.

But Raney argued that the company doesn't disclose that it also uses a link-shortener for direct messages. He initially accused the service of violating federal and California privacy laws by intercepting private communications without users' consent.

Twitter argued in papers filed in November that Raney's allegations didn't amount to a privacy violation.

"Twitter’s processing is entirely automated with no human review; applies without regard to the meaning of any message; and is done for legitimate business purposes that are critical to Twitter’s services" the company wrote in a motion asking U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup to dismiss the case.

The company added that "processing" the links allows it to stop the proliferation of spam and malware. "These practices do not implicate any privacy or other protected interest recognized under any viable legal theory," Twitter argued.