In an e-mail Sunday,
Twitter is alerting its members to changes to its policies on privacy and
service usage, including support for Do Not Track, as well as informing them
about a new weekly digest of interesting news and items from their feeds. "New
things are always happening here at Twitter HQ," the e-mail says.
"We're growing at a rapid pace, and our commitment to simplicity,
transparency, and reaching every person on the planet continues." In the
service's privacy policy, it's offering more detail -- in plain English
-- about what information it collects. Not only does it collect
information when you register with Twitter, but also profile information you
post to your account. "Our Services are primarily designed to help you
share information with the world," Twitter explains. "Most of the
information you provide us is information you are asking us to make public.
This includes not only the messages you Tweet and the metadata provided with
Tweets, such as when you Tweeted, but also the lists you create, the people you
follow, the Tweets you mark as favorites or Re-tweet, and many other bits of
information that result from your use of the Services." Twitter also
collects "log" information about you when you use the service or its
widgets. That includes your IP address, browser type, operating system,
referring web page, pages visited, location, your mobile carrier, device and
application IDs, search terms, and cookie information.
Log information is
purged after 18 months of collection, Twitter says; and after a maximum of ten
days, Twitter will start to delete or aggregate your widget data, a process
that's usually instantaneous, but can take up to a week. The service also noted
that it is supporting the Do Not Track (DNT) function found in a
number of web browsers. Browsers supporting DNT include Firefox 5.0+, Microsoft
Internet Explorer 9.0+, Apple Safari 5.1+, and Chrome 17.0+ with a third-party
extension. When DNT is activated, Twitter will stop tailoring your account based on the places you visit on the Web that
have Twitter buttons on them. What's more, tailoring will be shut off by
default if you have DNL activated when you join the service or if it was
activated before the tailoring feature was launched. You can also shut off
tailoring manually through your account settings.
Twitter clarifies its
explanation of how it shares data. For instance, it will share data you give it
permission to share, or when the data is not private or personal. It will also
share data to protect the safety of a person, to counter fraud and protect
system security, and to comply with requests from law enforcement and
regulators. However, that doesn't mean the service will roll over for the law
whenever it comes knocking at the door, as is being illustrated in a recent
case involving a protester in New York City. In that case, Twitter is
refusing to turn over to prosecutors the tweets of Malcom Harris, who was among
a group of demonstrators arrested in October 2011 for marching on the roadway
of the Brooklyn Bridge. Twitter has been ordered by a court to turn over the
tweets, but it's appealing that decision. Twitter also notes in its letter to
members that it will be rolling out over the next few weeks a feature that
sends weekly digests of tweets from your Twitter feed that the
service thinks you may have missed and will be interesting to you. Also in the
digests will be the "most engaging tweets" seen by the people you follow.
The digests will be interactive. You'll be able to click a headline in the
digest to go to its source online, for example, as well as view the details of
an item, re-tweet or "favorite" it, or view the conversation it's in.
Given how overwhelming Twitter feeds can become, the digests, if the algorithm
that creates them truly identifies worthwhile content, could be a welcome
addition for many Twitter users.
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